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Cumin is a plant and a spice indigenous to Upper Egypt, but early cultivated in Arabia, India and China, and in the Mediterranean region. It belongs to the family Apiaceae, which is popularly called the carrot family. Cumin is Cuminum cyminum.
The cumin plant is an annual herb. Its stem is slender and branching to about a foot in height; the leaves are multifid, with filiform segments; the flowers are small, white, 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 distintictive spicy flavor and strident 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.
Description of plant
The spice cumin