Cumin useful properties
Family Umbrella( Celery) - Apiaceae
The generic name comes from the Greek kara - head and is given in the shape of an umbrella. The species definition comes from the Arabic name of the plant - karwaia.
Botanical description. Biennial herbaceous plant. In the first year of life it forms a juicy spindle-prominent stem root and a radical rosette of leaves. Due to the nutrients deposited in the root, a straight-standing, branching stem 30-80 cm in height is formed for the next year. The leaves are alternate, petiolate with leaf sheath, at the bottom are larger, lanceolate in shape and double or triple distilled into lanceolate-linear segments. The flowers are white, collected in a complex umbrella with equal rays. There is no wrapper or 1-2 leaves. There is no overtone. Flowers are small, a cup in the form of five hardly noticeable denticles above the lower ovary. Petals five with the tip curled inside the flower. Stamens alternate with petals. Fruit is an oblong viscous fruit, which decomposes on maturation into two half-fruits with a fragrant smell and a peculiar spicy taste.
Blossoms in June - July, ripens in July - August.
Geographical spread of .It grows in the forest and forest-steppe zones along the roads, along river valleys, in meadows, in light forests, on fringes and forest glades, in the mountains.
occurs in the European part, except for steppe regions, in the Caucasus, in Western Siberia and in the Baikal region.
As a spicy food plant is grown on state farms.
For the medical industry, the production of caraway is carried out in Belarus, Ukraine, Latvia, Estonia and some regions of Russia.
Collection and drying. The harvesting of cumin is best done early in the morning or in the evening, so that the ripe fruits do not fall off. For the same reason, the collection is carried out at a time when half of the fruits in umbrellas are already browned, and the rest are still green. Plants are cut with sickles or knives and tied into sleepwalks. On the plantations, harvesting is carried out by grain combines. When drying indoors or outdoors, the fruit ripens, then the tips are threshed by hand or bread threshed and the stems are discarded. The obtained fruits are cleaned on sorting-racks, and at home sift through a sieve and weed out in the wind.
Reproduction of the thickets occurs spontaneously, as collecting a small scree of fruit is inevitable.
Some collectors, picking up cumin, tear out the plants with a root and tie them into bundles. With such a blank, the raw material always contains more permissible mineral impurities, which causes it to be rejected.
Medicinal raw materials. Finished raw materials - caraway fruits( Fractus Carvi) consists of the carp, most decayed. Halfplants oblong, often sickle-shaped, 3-7 mm long, 1-1.5 mm wide. The outer side is convex, the inner side is flat. Each half-fruit has 5 strongly protruding longitudinal ribs with light strips. The color of the fruit is dark brown. The smell is strong, fragrant, taste burning, bitterish, spicy.
Art.213 ГФ IX admits: moisture not more than 12%;ash not more than 8%;damaged and underdeveloped fruits of cumin, stem and leaf parts not more than 2%;essential oil impurities not more than 1%;organic impurities, including unscented fruits and seeds, not more than 1%;mineral impurity not more than 0.5%;essential oil not less than 4%.
Essential oil admixture can be found in raw materials harvested from cultivated plants.
Dill garden - Anethum graveolens L.- oval, flattened from the outside, almost flat semifinished with a wide light border.
Seedlings - Coriandrum sativum L.- spherical whole fruits with alternating straight and sinuous, slightly prominent ribs.
Anise ordinary - Anisum vulgare L. - pear-shaped or ovate whole fruits with slightly prominent ribs. Chemical composition of .Cumin fruits contain 3-7% of essential oil, which includes ketone carvone - an odor carrier, there are also limonene, carvacrol, dihydrocarvone, dihydrocarveol and other terpene-oids. Found in fruits and flavonoids - quercetin and kaempferol, fatty oil with a high content of petroselinic acid glycerides and tannins.
Agrotechnics of cultivation. Site selection. The best precursors of caraway are: winter crops that go through fertilized couples, and row crops. The most favorable for cumin are chernozems and fertile loams with good structure and even sandy soils with sufficient fertility.
Soil treatment. Cumin usually comes after winter crops, and therefore the soil cultivation is carried out according to the system of autumn plowing to a depth of 22-25 cm with the preliminary peeling of stubble. Immediately after harvesting the tilled predecessors, the soil is plowed. To ensure more uniform shoots in the spring, the field is leveled by dipping, and then cultivated. If the soil is highly compacted, the plowing is replaced by harrowing and presowing cultivation. On loose soils for uniform seeding before sowing, soil casting is used( in droughty spring, the katkowing is recommended and after sowing for the fastest growing of shoots).
Application of fertilizers. Under the autumn plowing, humus is applied - 15-20 t / ha in a mixture with mineral fertilizers at the rate of 1 c / ha of ammonium sulfate, 1.5-2.0 c / ha of superphosphate. If the caraway seeds are sown on fertilized winter wheat, then only fertilizers in the amount of 1.5-2.0 c / ha of ammonium sulphate, 2.0-2.5 c / ha of superphosphate and 0.5 c / ha are applied to autumn plowingpotassium salt.
Reproduction of .Caraway seeds are propagated directly by sowing seeds in the soil. The sowing is carried out by first-class seeds with the help of TOD-24 tractor seeders, or in the absence of seeders with disc coulters. The sowing period is early. The seeding rate is 8-10 kg / ha for 45 cm rows and the seeding depth is 2-4 cm. In order to obtain reliable seedlings, the seeds undergo preliminary preparation( fermentation) before sowing.
Care for plantations consists of systematic( three to four times) loosening, weeding, and crusting after rain. The first loosening is carried out before emergence, and the last - at a depth of 10-12 cm with the application of fertilizers from the calculation: 1.0-1.5 c / ha superphosphate and 0.5 c / ha potassium salt. In the second year of culture, i.e.in the year of fruiting, early in the spring harrowing across the rows, and after that loosen row spacing to a depth of 10-12 cm and remove the weeds in rows. After 10-15 days loosening of rows between rows is repeated to a depth of 6-8 cm. At the same time, top dressing is done at the rate of 1.0-1.5 c / ha of ammonium sulfate or 3 c / ha of bird droppings and 2-3 c / ha of ash.
Harvesting .Seeds of cumin as well as anise, when ripe quickly crumble, so threshing, cleaning and sorting of cumin is basically similar to the work of harvesting anise. The yield of cumin seeds is 15-25 centner / ha.
Seed growing. To obtain a seed of good quality, it is necessary to use high agrotechnics on the seed plot with the introduction of a sufficient amount of organic and mineral fertilizers. To improve the quality of seeds, it is recommended to carry out artificial extrapolation during flowering, sorting weeding with the removal of plants that differ from the main type of this population, as well as diseased and underdeveloped plants.
Useful and healing properties
Action and application. Essential oil of cumin acts irritatingly on taste buds and therefore reflexively increases the digestive function, strengthens the tone and peristalsis of the intestine, inhibits the processes of putrefaction and fermentation in the intestines, relieves pain in the stomach and intestines. Fruits have antispasmodic properties, relaxing the smooth muscles, increase diuresis, increase the secretion of mammary glands, contribute to the separation of mucus and sputum.
A decoction of 20 g of whole, or better crushed, fruit for 200 ml of water is prescribed to adults 3-4 tablespoons 3-4 times a day with gastric and intestinal colic, flatulence, atony, dyspepsia, enteritis, gastritis, digestive disorders,especially in children.
Cumin fruits are widely used in the food industry. They sprinkle bread and add them to the dough, sausages, with cumin sauerkraut, used for flavoring cheeses. When salting cucumbers and tomatoes with cumin, the products are stored longer than usual. Fruit powder is used as a spicy seasoning for the manufacture of some first and second dishes.
Indications: caraway seeds are used in disorders of intestinal function( intestinal colic, gas accumulation), enteritis, colitis with meteorism. Cumin is used in the composition of medicinal fees.
Dosage form: equal amounts of valerian root, chamomile flowers, mint leaves, dill seeds, caraway seeds, parsley mix, 1 tbsp.l.the mixture is brewed for 1 cup of boiling water, taken during the day.
Medicinal raw materials are fruits. They are collected unripe in umbrellas to avoid losses during collection, dried in the shade, often mixed and agitated, and then threshed and watered. The raw materials are stored in closed banks in a dark room. Shelf life 3 years.
Fruits contain along with coloring, tarry and protein substances fatty essential oils. The essential oil contains about 50% of the carvone, which gives the fruit a specific smell.
Cumin fruits act irritatingly on the taste buds, reflexively increase the function of the digestive apparatus;strengthen its tone and peristalsis, reduce the processes of putrefaction and fermentation in the intestine.
In scientific medicine, cumin is used for atony and bowel flaccidity, flatulence, as a means to strengthen the separation of bile, etc.
In folk medicine, cumin is considered antiseptic, diaphoretic, diuretic, which activates the functional activity of the digestive tract by means, therefore it is applied in people( brothseeds, caraway oil) with atony, pain in the intestine, decreased secretion of gastric contents, flatulence, anemia, as choleretic, carminative and laxative;apply cumin in the form of infusion with atonic constipation and chronic cholecystitis. Decoction of fruit is drank by nursing mothers to increase the amount of milk, with female bleeding. In many cases, caraway seeds are used along with thyme and dill.
When the abdomen is swollen, the child has 1 tbsp.a spoonful of fruits cooked in a glass of boiling water for 5-10 minutes, sweetened with sugar and give 1 tsp 5-6 times a day. You can put an enema from this broth( but without sugar).
With flatulence in adults, a decoction of 2 tbsp gives good results.spoonfuls of cumin fruit, 1 teaspoon of dill fruit, 2.5 tablespoons finely chopped yarrow leaves and
1 spoonful of oats, they are brewed in 2 cups of boiling water, insist 40 minutes, use 2 tbsp.spoons every 2 hours.
Broth: 20 g per 200 ml;1 tbsp.spoon 3 times a day. To stimulate appetite, recommend an hour before eating to eat a small amount of fruit( at the tip of the knife).
Cumin is an excellent medicinal plant. Cumin seeds are used for various diseases of the gastrointestinal tract( dyspepsia, intestinal atony, intestinal colic, enteritis).Especially indispensable for disorders of the stomach and intestines in infants. Cumin fruits are included in various collections( teas) of herbs: appetizing, gastric, laxative, carminative, soothing. They have seeds and a milk property.
Cumin - very popular in our country food and spicy plant. It has long been known and loved by the people. Even our great-grandmothers widely used all parts of this plant: seeds - when baking bread, especially rye, cooking buns, pancakes, soups and cottage cheese, add cumin while cooking potatoes. Long since seeds of cumin used for sour cabbage, pickling cucumbers, tomatoes, are added to the red beet.
As a whole, cumin is added to all kinds of fatty meat, sausages, boiled fish, into mushroom soups, carrots, and some cheeses. Ground cumin is added to dishes that do not require heat treatment: pates, cheeses, cottage cheese. Cumin is a part of many spicy mixtures.
Powder of cumin with dill. Dried cumin seeds are mixed equally with dry greens of dill, crushed on a coffee grinder and used for filling meat and vegetable soups. Soup filling from cumin roots. Rinse the rhizomes of cumin in a meat grinder and add to the soup for 5-10 minutes until cooked.
Salty sticks with caraway seeds are very tasty. Knead the dough from 250 g of flour, 100 g of butter, 1 egg, 1 tablespoon of milk and 1 tablespoon of sour cream. Dough roll out, cut into thin chopsticks, roll in egg, salt and cumin, and then bake in a low-heat oven.
In some places young leaves of cumin are used as a salad or cook soup from them. Try to make a very simple, but very tasty and useful salad of caraway with cabbage: 20-30 g of young shoots and leaves of cumin, 150 g of sauerkraut, 15 g of vegetable oil. Washed and finely chopped caraway seeds sprinkled with prepared cabbage, season with vegetable oil.
A salad can be served with fresh potatoes baked with cumin. Young medium-sized potatoes should be washed with a brush under running water( without peeling), and then dried and cut into halves. Lubricate the surface of the oil, then sprinkle cumin and salt. We put the potatoes on a baking sheet( cut up) and put in a well-heated oven for 30-40 minutes.
Caraway seeds are added to kvass. Kvass caraway.40 g of cumin, 1 kg of black bread, 25 g of yeast, 500 g of granulated sugar, 10 liters of water. Bread cut into small pieces, dried, pour with water and leave for 3-4 hours. Strain, add the yeast, sugar, cumin and put in a warm place for fermentation. After 2-3 days strain and store in a cool place.