Cumin Seed Extract (Cuminum cyminum) 8 fl oz: HH

An essential ingredient in many mixed spices, chutneys, and chili and curry powders, cumin seeds are especially popular in Asian, North African, and Latin American cuisines. Their distinctive aroma is heavy and strong; their taste warm and reminiscent of caraway. Cumin, or comino, seeds are actually dried fruits. The seeds contain between 2.5 and 4.5 percent essential oil, the principal component of which is cumaldehyde. The oil is used in perfumery, for flavoring a variety of liquors, and for medicinal purposes. At one time cumin seeds were widely used for their comforting carminative qualities. Grieve's classic 'A Modern Herbal': 'Cumin is mentioned in Isaiah xxvii. 25 and 27, and Matthew xxiii. 23, and in the works of Hippocrates and Dioscorides. From Pliny we learn that the ancients took the ground seed medicinally with bread, water or wine, and that it was accounted the best of condiments.' 'In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, when it was much in use as a culinary spice, its average price in England per lb. was 2d., equivalent to 1s. 4d. at the present day.' 'Cumin has now gone out of use in European medicine, having been replaced by Caraway seed, which has a more agreeable flavour, but it is still used to some extent in India, in native medicine.' 'Its principal employment is in veterinary medicine and as an ingredient in curry powder, for which purposes it is imported from Bombay and Calcutta, Morocco, Sicily and Malta. It is commonly sold in Malta, where they call it cumino aigro (hot Cumin), to distinguish it from Anise, which they term cumino dulce, or sweet Cumin.' King's 1898 Dispensatory: 'Highly stimulant and carminative, possessing medical properties similar to the other aromatic fruits of umbelliferous plants, but more stimulating.