The plant boasts a long history of almost universal application, though its medical use is particularly interesting, as it dates back to prehistorical times. In ancient Rome,
Greece and Egypt it was used for boosting metabolism and digestion. The plant was used as a vegetable as well as a pasture plant. Many accounts exist of its medical properties, i.a. from Theophrastus of Eresos, Pedanios Dioscorides, Pliny the Elder or Avicenna, who used chicory preparations for treatment of digestive or visual disorders. Avicenna also applied chicory root decoctions for alleviation of gout pain. (Cichorium intybus) has been extensively used for a long period in the Unani system of medicine, too. 
Apart from the abovementioned, medieval Europeans would use chicory to treat jaundice, or even malaria .