Wild rocket

What is Wild rocket?

Wild rocket is a peppery salad leaf. People eat it across Europe. It is sold fresh in bags and bunches, and used mostly as food.

In Italy it is known as rucola selvatica. It is not the same plant as salad rocket (Eruca vesicaria).

Wild rocket has thin, jagged leaves. The bite is sharper and more bitter. It also keeps its flavour better in cooking.

Folk use in Europe treated it as a spring green for appetite and digestion. Traditional use is not proof that a plant works. It is also not proof that it is safe.

Here is the honest verdict. As a vegetable it is a sound food for most people, and rich in nutrients. As a remedy for any named illness, human proof for this plant is all but absent.

How does Wild rocket work?

No proven medical action has been shown for wild rocket in people.

Like other leafy greens, it holds a lot of dietary nitrate. The body can turn nitrate into nitrite, and then into nitric oxide. Nitric oxide relaxes blood vessels.

Short human studies of nitrate-rich vegetable juice show small drops in blood pressure. Most of that work used beetroot, not this plant.

Wild rocket is a cabbage-family plant, so it carries glucosinolates. When leaves are chewed or chopped, these break down into isothiocyanates.

In cell studies, these compounds appear to switch on the body's own antioxidant defences. In test tubes, some slow the growth of certain bacteria. Whether either effect matters in a person eating salad is not known.

The peppery, bitter taste is the basis of the old digestive claim. Bitter foods may prompt saliva and gastric juices. This has not been tested for wild rocket itself.

What forms does Wild rocket come in?

Almost all use is as a plain food. You will meet it as:

- Fresh loose leaves or bagged salad - Pesto and sauces made from the leaves - A topping stirred into hot pasta, pizza or soup - Seeds sold for home growing, and sprouted seeds - Dried leaf powder, sold rarely - Nitrate-rich rocket juice, used mainly in research

There is no standard capsule, tincture or set-strength extract on the mainstream market.

Where it comes from:

Rocket-type greens have a long record in European cooking and folk practice. Greek and Roman writers linked rocket to appetite. They also claimed it stirred desire.

These were cultural beliefs, not findings.

In Italy, Greece and the Balkans, people gathered wild rocket from field edges as a spring green. Country tradition treated bitter greens as a way to clear the winter and stir digestion.

In some rural practice, crushed leaves were laid on minor skin sores. Records of this are thin. They are not grounds for doing it today.

What does Wild rocket help with?

• Poor appetite and sluggish digestion: Tradition used the sharp, bitter taste to wake up appetite before a meal. Bitter foods may raise saliva and stomach juices. This has not been tested for wild rocket in people. Treat it as a pleasant habit, not a treatment.
• Everyday nutrition as part of a vegetable-rich diet: This is the clearest benefit, and it is simply the benefit of eating vegetables. The leaves supply vitamin K1, folate, vitamin C and carotenoids for very few calories. Diets high in vegetables are linked to better heart health in large population studies. No study shows that wild rocket, on its own, does anything special.
• Blood pressure, through dietary nitrate: Rocket leaves are among the higher-nitrate vegetables. In short trials, nitrate-rich vegetable juice has lowered blood pressure by a small amount in adults. Most of that work used beetroot juice or mixed greens. Wild rocket itself has not been tested this way. Do not treat salad as a substitute for blood pressure medicine.
• Folk use as a water pill (diuretic): European country use counted bitter greens among plants that 'flush' the body. No human trial supports a water pill (diuretic) effect for wild rocket. If you need fluid shifted for a heart or kidney problem, that is a medical job. Food will not do it.
• Folk use on minor skin sores: Crushed leaves were sometimes laid on small sores or insect bites. In test tubes, some rocket compounds slow certain bacteria. There is no human evidence that this helps a wound heal. Raw leaves can carry soil bacteria, so putting them on broken skin may do harm.

Which foods are rich in Wild rocket?

1. Fresh wild rocket leaves
2. Mixed Italian salad blends
3. Rocket pesto
4. Rocket topping on pizza and pasta
5. Home-grown rocket sprouts

Practical Tips:

Wild rocket is a food first. Eating it in salads and sauces is the normal way to have it.

Pair it with olive oil, which helps your body take up the carotenoids. Heat softens the bitter edge, so stir it into hot dishes at the end.

What are the side effects of Wild rocket?

• Heartburn or a burning mouth from the peppery taste
• Gas or bloating, as with other cabbage-family greens
• A bitter aftertaste some people dislike
• Allergic reaction in people sensitive to cabbage-family plants
• Food poisoning from unwashed or poorly stored leaves
• Swings in warfarin control, due to vitamin K1

Good to know:

For most people, wild rocket causes no problems at all. It is an ordinary salad vegetable.

The common complaints are mild and settle on their own. The real risks are not from the plant itself.

The two that matter are germs on raw leaves and the vitamin K content if you take warfarin. Both are manageable, and both are covered below.

How much Wild rocket should you take?

• Recommended daily: There is no medicinal dose, because no medicinal use is proven. It is eaten as a food. A normal salad serving is roughly one handful, about 25 to 30 g. National guidance simply counts this toward your daily vegetables. This is a general figure, not advice for you. Anyone on warfarin, or with kidney disease, should ask their own doctor or dietitian about green leaves.
• Best time of day: Timing does not matter. Eat it whenever you eat salad. The old custom of bitter leaves before a meal is a tradition, not a tested rule.
• With or without food: It is a food, so it is eaten with meals. Wash it well before eating, even bagged leaves marked as pre-washed. Fat, such as olive oil, helps your body take up the carotenoids.
• Time to effect: As food, it gives nutrition from the first meal, like any vegetable. Do not expect a noticeable change from eating it. For appetite, digestion or blood pressure, it may do nothing at all that you can feel. Any blood pressure effect from dietary nitrate, if present, is small and fades within a day or two.
• How long to take it: As a salad vegetable, it can be part of your diet for life. No course length applies. No supplement form has been studied long enough to suggest a safe duration. That is a reason to stay with the food.