Cumin (Cuminum cyminum)
Cuminum cyminum
Western and Ayurvedic herbalism
Western and Ayurvedic herbalism

Cumin

Cuminum cyminum

Also known as Cummin, Cummin seeds, white cumin, jeera, Jiraka, Shveta jiraka, Ajaji.

WarmingDryingTaste: PungentTaste: BitterTaste: Aromatic

Cumin is the small, ridged, aromatic fruit of an annual umbellifer native to the eastern Mediterranean and western Asia, long cultivated across Egypt, the Middle East, India, and southern Europe. The seed has been used since antiquity both as a kitchen spice and as a warming digestive medicine. In the older physiomedicalist literature it was grouped with the other aromatic umbellifer seeds such as dill, caraway, and fennel as a stimulating carminative, though noted even then to be less pleasant and less used than its relatives.

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CarminativeAntispasmodicDigestive stimulantGalactagogueAntimicrobialAnti-inflammatoryMild hypoglycemicEmmenagogueAstringent (mild)AntioxidantHypolipidemic (mild)Uterine tonic postpartum (traditional)Diuretic (mild)

Indications what the tradition reached for it in

Specific indications

Griping, colicky abdominal pain with flatulence in a person whose digestion runs cold and slow

Poor or diminishing milk supply in a nursing mother with weak, sluggish digestion

Safety

The record lists 3 contraindications; open the plate in the library to read them in full.

In practice

Cumin seed is reached for when digestion is sluggish, cold, and prone to gas and cramping griping pain, particularly in constitutions that also run cold. It combines well with fennel, caraway, dill, or ginger in a simple after-meal infusion, and its warming, slightly bitter aromatic character makes it a reasonable substitute where a patient dislikes the taste of dill or caraway.

In Ayurveda

Rasa: katu (pungent). Virya: ushna (heating). Vipaka: katu (pungent). Guna: laghu (light), ruksha (dry). Dosha: pacifies kapha and vata; mild enough that it does not aggravate pitta in ordinary doses. Karma: deepana (kindles digestion); pachana (digests ama); grahi (absorbent, binds stool); ruchya (improves taste and appetite); garbhashaya shodhana (cleanses the uterus after delivery); stanyajanana (promotes breast milk); chakshushya (benefits the eyes); medhya (supports intellect); balya (strengthening); vrishya (aphrodisiac); krimighna (anthelmintic); kaphahara (reduces kapha). Classical indications: agnimandya (weak digestion); ajirna (indigestion); atisara (diarrhea); grahani (malabsorption, irritable bowel); gulma (abdominal mass, bloating); adhmana (distension); chardi (vomiting); krimi (worms); jvara (fever); kushtha (skin disease); stanya kshaya (poor lactation); sutika roga (postpartum disorders). The dried ripe fruit is the drug, roasted and powdered as churna, given as kwatha or as a simple infusion (jiraka jala), fermented into Jirakadyarishta for postpartum care, and combined with sugar and ghee in confections for nursing mothers. Classical formulations: Jirakadyarishta, Jirakadi modaka, Hingvashtaka churna, Lavanabhaskara churna, Ajamodadi churna, Jirakadi churna, Dhanyaka-jiraka kwatha, Jiraka jala. Described in: Charaka Samhita, Sushruta Samhita, Ashtanga Hridaya, Bhavaprakasha Nighantu, Dhanvantari Nighantu, Raja Nighantu, Kaiyadeva Nighantu, Sharngadhara Samhita, Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia of India.

Dosing as the sources wrote it

PreparationAs writtenMetric
Infusion1-4 g crushed seed steeped as tea, up to three times daily1000-4000 mg
Tincture (1:5, 45%)0.5-2 mL three times daily0.5-2 mL
Whole seed (chewed or culinary)0.5-1 teaspoon seed after meals
Dose, from 15 to 60 grains.972-3888 mg
and Nigella damascena, Linné, or Ragged Lady. They are natives of Syria and south Europe, and are cultivated in gardens. The leaves of these plants resemble those of fennel. The seeds of the first species are rough, triangular, ovate, two surfaces being flat and the other convex, about 1/12 to 1/10 inch long, externally dull-black, and internally white and oleaginous. To the taste they are acrid, somewhat spicy, and pungent. In odor they are aromatic or camphoraceous, reminding some persons of nutmegs, others of cajuput. The seeds of ragged lady are occasionally sold under the name magnolia seeds. They have rounded angles, an a deeply-netted and corrugated testa. When rubbed they exhale an odor comparable with that of strawberries. The seeds of nutmeg flower, according to Husemann and Hilger, contain 1.5 per cent of an essential, colorless and fluorescent oil, and consists of a substance C20H24O and a terpene (Flückiger). Its odor differs from that of the seeds, and a fixed oil to the extent of 35 per cent, was obtained by Reinsch in 1841. Flückiger has shown it to be composed of myristin, stearin, and palmitin. A yellow extract-like mass, having a bitter taste, was isolated by Reinsch and named nigellin. It is not, however, regarded as a distinct body.
Melanthin (C20H33O7), a glucosid, was isolated by H. G. Greenish, in 1880. It is amorphous, acrid, foams when shaken with water, is very soluble in alcohol, but scarcely soluble in water, benzin, benzol, ether, and carbon disulphide. Acids split it into glucose and melanthigenin (C14H23O2). Both principles impart a rose-red tint with pure sulphuric acid in about 15 minutes. The color changes to violet-red upon long standing. The seeds of Nigella damascena were observed by Greenish to yield to petroleum benzin a fluorescent principle, but contain no melanthin (Amer. Jour. Pharm., 1882, pp. 10 and 304), and A. Schneider (1890) showed that this was due to a crystalline alkaloid which he named damascenine, the compounds of which, however, are non-fluorescent.

Doses are reproduced from the sources for practitioners and are not a recommendation for any person.

From the sources

Overview. Cumin is the small, ridged, aromatic fruit of an annual umbellifer native to the eastern Mediterranean and western Asia, long cultivated across Egypt, the Middle East, India, and southern Europe. The seed has been used since antiquity both as a kitchen spice and as a warming digestive medicine. In the older physiomedicalist literature it was grouped with the other aromatic umbellifer seeds such as dill, caraway, and fennel as a stimulating carminative, though noted even then to be less pleasant and less used than its relatives.

Overview. Cuminum cyminum is a slender annual of the carrot family grown across the dry plains of Gujarat and Rajasthan, which supply most of the world's cumin, and its small ridged fruits are the spice found in nearly every Indian kitchen. Ayurveda calls it Jiraka and treats it as the everyday deepana and pachana: a warming, light, aromatic seed that kindles digestion, settles wind and diarrhea, and is given in confections and fermented preparations to women after childbirth to restore digestion and milk.

Clinical Notes. Cumin seed is reached for when digestion is sluggish, cold, and prone to gas and cramping griping pain, particularly in constitutions that also run cold. It combines well with fennel, caraway, dill, or ginger in a simple after-meal infusion, and its warming, slightly bitter aromatic character makes it a reasonable substitute where a patient dislikes the taste of dill or caraway.

Clinical Notes. Jiraka is the digestive remedy that sits between the fire of Trikatu and the gentleness of Dhanyaka. Reach for it in agnimandya with gas, bloating, loose stools and a coated tongue, in grahani where the gut is irritable and absorbs poorly, and in the postpartum period, where the tradition uses it in Jirakadyarishta and sweet ghee confections to restore appetite, promote milk and cleanse the uterus.

Drawn from Cook's Physio-Medical Dispensatory; King's American Dispensatory, 18th edition (Felter and Lloyd), and the Bountiful Herbs editorial.

In formulas

Cumin stands in 48 documented formulas in the library, among them Amṛtāriṣta, Ayaskṛti, Aśokāriṣta, Jīrakādyariṣṭa, Mustakāriṣṭa, Mṛtasaṅjīvanī Surā.

Often paired with

GingerZingiber officinaleblack pepperPiper nigrumcardamomElettaria cardamomumlong pepperPiper longumajwainTrachyspermum ammiIndian bay leafCinnamomum tamala

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