A plant with bright blue, purple, or yellow flowers, often used in medicine and as a bitter flavoring agent.
From Latin gentiana, named after Gentius, a 2nd-century BC king of Illyria who supposedly discovered the plant's medicinal properties. The name became associated with the plant species throughout medieval Europe.
Gentian root was so valued in ancient medicine that a king got it named after him—imagine being famous enough 2,000 years later that a plant remembers your name! It's still used in digestive bitters today because of its intensely bitter compounds.
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