Poli Museo della Grappa Srlu

The common polypody

• Plant: Common Polypody (Polypodium Vulgare)
• Plant part: root
• Plant feauters: astringent, expectorant, laxative, bitter, gall producer , liver

• Description:

  The common polypody likes to thicken at the bases of the trees, on stones, rocks and walls at the foot of the mountain chain.
  The wintergreen and persevering species spreads as rhizome geophytes or creeping Chamaephyt and often forms dense populations. The leaves are two-line alternately pinnate, all-round and remain green all year round.

  The creeping rhizome is a long rootstock with a flavor of liquorice, which is used as a medicinal because of its stimulating action of the bile ducts when it has been cleaned and dried. This effect is due to the resin and the content of minerals and saponins.

   

The recipe

• Ingredients:

  - 10 dried rhizomes
  - 1 liter of Grappa

• Preparation:

  To flavor a Grappa with this rhizome you should collect ten pieces of it in spring, then clean the root and dry it in the sun until it is almost black.
  Cut it into small pieces and let macerate in a liter of Grappa for three months. After three months of aging you obtain a brownish liqueur with a flavor of liquorice.