Cumin



Cumin (Cuminum cyminum) is a plant and a spice originally cultivated in Iran and the Mediterranean region, although it is now mostly grown in Morocco, Egypt, India, Syria, North America, and Chile. It belongs to the family Apiaceae, which is popularly called the carrot family. The name cumin is a distortion of the Persian city Kerman, where from the historical times, most of Iran's cumin is produced. For the Persians the expression carrying "cumin to Kerman" means: "to carry coal to Newcastle". Kerman locally called Kermun became Kumun and then cumin in the European languages.

Description of plant

The cumin plant is an annual herb. Its stem is slender and branching to about a foot in height; the leaves are laciniate with filiform segments; the flowers are small, white or pink, and borne in umbels. The so-called seeds are its fruits, which are achenes. These, which constitute the spice cumin, are fusiform or ovoid in shape, and compressed laterally.

Cumin fruits have a distinctive bitter flavor and strong, warm aroma due to their abundant oil content. Cumin is hotter to the taste, lighter in colour, and larger than caraway (Carum carvi), another umbelliferous spice that is sometimes confused with it. Cumin is also not related to black cumin, which is an alternate name for nigella (Nigella sativa).

Today, cumin is identified with Indian cuisine and Mexican cuisine. It is used as an ingredient of curry powder. In herbal medicine, cumin is classified as stimulant, carminative, and antimicrobial.

Cumin looks like fennel seed, but is a bit darker in color and tastes quite different from fennel. In Hindi, it is known as 'jeera'.