What is Agave?

A family of plants native to warmer climates from the southwest United States through Central America that are used as an ingredient to produce the syrup for a variety of beverages, such as mescal, pulque, and tequila. This plant is poisonous when raw, but when cooked it becomes a sweet flavored food component. It is the main stalk or heart of the plant that is harvested, cut into pieces and cooked to extract the juice.

Wikipedia: Agaves are succulent plants of a large botanical genus of the same name, belonging to the family Agavaceae. Chiefly Mexican, they occur also in the southern and western United States and in central and tropical South America. The plants have a large rosette of thick fleshy leaves generally ending in a sharp point and with a spiny margin; the stout stem is usually short, the leaves apparently springing from the root. Each rosette is monocarpic and grows slowly to flower but once after a number of years, when a tall stem or "mast" grows from the center of the leaf rosette and bears a large number of shortly tubular flowers. After development of fruit the original plant dies, but suckers are frequently produced from the base of the stem which become new plants.

The most familiar species is Agave americana, a native of tropical America, the so-called Century Plant or American aloe (the maguey of Mexico). The name refers to the long time the plant takes to flower, although the number of years before flowering occurs depends on the vigor of the individual, the richness of the soil and the climate; during these years the plant is storing in its fleshy leaves the nourishment required for the effort of flowering. During the development of the inflorescence there is a rush of sap to the base of the young flowerstalk. In the case of A. americana and other species this is used by the Mexicans to make their national beverage, pulque; the flower shoot is cut out and the sap collected and subsequently fermented. By distillation a spirit called mezcal is prepared. The leaves of several species yield fiber, as for instance, Agave rigida var. sisalana, sisal hemp, Agave decipiens, False Sisal Hemp; Agave americana is the source of pita fiber, and is used as a fiber plant in Mexico, the West Indies and southern Europe. The flowering stem of the last named, dried and cut in slices, forms natural razor strops, and the expressed juice of the leaves will lather in water like soap. The Native Americans of Mexico used the agave to make pens, nails and needles, as well as string to sew and make weavings. In India the plant is extensively used for hedges along railroads.

Agave americana, century plant, was introduced into Europe about the middle of the 16th century and is now widely cultivated for its handsome appearance; in the variegated forms the leaf has a white or yellow marginal or central stripe from base to apex. As the leaves unfold from the center of the rosette the impression of the marginal spines is very conspicuous on the still erect younger leaves. The tequ plants are usually grown in tubs and put out in the summer months, but in the winter require protection from frost. They mature very slowly and die after flowering, but are easily propagated by the offsets from the base of the stem.

Agave nectar has been used as an alternative to sugar in cooking.

The juice from many species of agave can cause acute contact dermatitis. It will produce reddening and blistering lasting one to two weeks. Episodes of itching may recur up to a year thereafter, even though there is no longer a visible rash. Interestingly, dried parts of the plants can be handled with bare hands with little or no effect.

Source: wikipedia