Cumin

Product Description

      Cumin is a flowering plant in the family Apiaceae, native from the east Mediterranean to India. Its seeds (each one contained within a fruit, which is dried) are used in the cuisines of many different cultures, in both whole and ground form. It also has many uses as a traditional medicinal plant.

     Cumin is the dried seed of the herb Cuminum cyminum, a member of the parsley family. The cumin plant grows to ***0 cm  tall and is harvested by hand. It is an annual herbaceous plant, with a slender, glabrous, branched stem which is ***0 cm  tall and has a diameter of *5 cm. Each branch has two to three sub-branches. All the branchesattain the same height, therefore the plant has a uniform canopy. The stem is coloured greyor dark green. The leaves are **0 cm  long, pinnate or bipinnate, with thread-like leaflets.

       The flowers are small, white or pink, and borne inumbels. Each umbel has five to seven umbellts. The fruit is a lateral fusiform or ovoid achene *5 mm long, containing two mericarps with a single seed. Cumin seeds have eight ridges with oil canals. They resemble caraway seeds, being oblong in shape, longitudinally ridged, and yellow-brown in colour, like other members of the umbelliferae family such as caraway, parsley and dill.

       Cumin is a drought tolerant, tropic or semi-tropic crop. Its origin is most probably Egypt, Turkmenistan and the east Mediterranean. Cumin has a short growth season of **0 **0 days. The optimum growth temperature ranges are between *5° and *0 °C.The Mediterranean climate is most suitable for its growth; cumin requires a moderately cool and dry climate. Cultivation of cumin requires a long, hot summer of three to four months.