Ui agen ee 
UMBELLIFERAE 117 
and khah ‘relish.’ Ibn Sina notices it under the name of Nan- 
_ khah, but does not identify it with any of the kinds of cumin 
_ which he mentions. Pliny (20, 58,) says that ammi and king’s 
- eumin are considered to be identical. Haji Zein-el-Attér 
(A. D. 1368) identifies nankhah with the ammi of Dioscorides 
and Paulus Aigineta, and quotes the opinions of those physi- 
cians concerning its medicinal properties. He also informs us 
that the drug has a reputation for its antiseptic properties, and 
is used to promote the healing of foul sores, and to remove the 
offensive odour of the discharges from them. 
The author of the Tuhfat-el-muminin, and other Mahome- 
tan physicians, who have written in India, identify Ajowan 
with the ammi or basilikon kuminon of Dioscorides, and also 
with the zhinian and nankhah of Persia; they give it the Arabic 
name of Kamin-el-multki, “ king’s cumin.” 
The authors of the Pharmacographia speaking of Fructus 
_ Ajowan, remark: “ Owing to their having been confounded 
_ with some other very small umbelliferous fruits it is difficult 
~ to trace them precisely in many of the older writers on Materia _ 
Medica. It is however probable that they are the Ammi of 
- Anguillaria (1561), and the Ammi perpusillum of Lobel (1571), 
in whose time the seeds were obtained from Egypt. They are 
certainly the Ajave seeds of Percival (1773), who obtained 
_ them from India.” The plant is the Ptychotis Ajowan of later 
a European writers on Indian Materia Medica. 
In native practice, ajowan is much used as a carminative, 
either alone or in combination with rock salt, asafootida, myro- 
balans, &c. It is also thought to check discharges of a 
chronic kind, and is therefore used in making lotions, collyria, 
