Cumin Seed (Cuminum cyminum)

Cumin Seed (Cuminum cyminum)

Price for Package of 240 (1g) seeds.

Cumin (/ˈkjuːmᵻn/ or UK /ˈkʌmᵻn/, US /ˈkuːmᵻn/), sometimes spelled cummin, (Cuminum cyminum) 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 30–50 cm (12–20 in) tall and is harvested by hand. It is an annual herbaceous plant, with a slender, glabrous, branched stem that is 20–30 cm (8–12 in) tall and has a diameter of 3–5 cm (1 1⁄4–2 in).[9] Each branch has two to three sub-branches. All the branches attain the same height, therefore the plant has a uniform canopy.[9] The stem is coloured grey or dark green. The leaves are 5–10 cm (2–4 in) long, pinnate or bipinnate, with thread-like leaflets. The flowers are small, white or pink, and borne in umbels. Each umbel has five to seven umbellts.[9] The fruit is a lateral fusiform or ovoid achene 4–5 mm (1⁄6–1⁄5 in) long, containing two mericarps with a single seed.[9] Cumin seeds have eight ridges with oil canals.[9] 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.

Etymology

The English "cumin" is derived from the Old English, from Latin cuminum,[3] which is the Latinisation of the Greek κύμινον (kyminon),[4] cognate with Hebrew כמון (kammon) and Arabic كمون (kammūn).[5] The earliest attested form of the word in Greek is the Mycenaean.