One of Life's Tiny Treasures

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Perhaps you've enjoyed its flowers in the garden, but have you indulged in its flavor in the kitchen or realized the potential health benefits of black seed or black cumin? This annual herb is cultivated in India, Bangladesh, Turkey, the Middle East, and the Mediterranean basin and has been used through the ages for culinary and medicinal purposes. For centuries, black seed has been used in the Middle East and Asia for its medicinal properties, but its use isn't limited to that area. You'll find references to it in the Bible, and the seeds used ground as a seasoning like pepper in many culinary creations. Now scientists have isolated some of its compounds and are gaining a better understanding of these traditional uses.

Identity Crisis

The angular seeds look like kissing cousins of onion seeds and black poppy because of their color and similar fruit capsule. Black cumin also has been mistaken for the umbellifers caraway, fennel and coriander because of its leaf shape, and it also resembles common or Indian cumin (Cuminum nigrum and C. cyminu). Botanically, however, black cumin, a member of the buttercup family, Ranunculus, is unrelated to these plants.

The Nigella Family

The three most important varieties of black cumin are:

1) Nigella sativa, true black cumin, grows to a height of 6 to 12 inches; bears milky white apical blossoms that turn bluish-green near the tip, containing a coarse ball-like fruit capsule that develops after the plant blossoms; and a crown of five protruding beak-like spikes.

Ground nigella seeds emit a fragrance vaguely similar to fennel, anise or nutmeg, which some compare to camphor or cajaput. They taste slightly bitter, spicy and piquant and have been used as a substitute for caraway and black pepper in bread making and at the table.

2) N. damascena, Turkish black cumin, garden black cumin or Damask fennel, is an ornamental that grows to a height of 21/2 feet with an upright stem and dark-green, finely slit leaves with long, thin tips reminiscent of dill leaves. The blossoms are surrounded by five similarly slit leaves.