CARUM 

 CARUI 



Caraway 



Uses. 



Price. 



D.E.P., 

 ii., 196-8. 

 European 

 Caraway. 



Uses. 



Medicine. 



Oil. 



Fodder. 



THE TRUE CARAWAY 



banchak or bankok, and that before it is mixed with the carum the fruits are 

 coloured with a decoction of walnut bark. It is sold at 9 seers to the rupee, the 

 true article being very much more expensive say 3 seers to the rupee. Usually 

 5 seers of banchak are mixed with one seer of zira. The black caraway and its 

 adulterant are therefore respectively the " zira " and " singhu " mentioned in 

 the Panjdb Forest Administration Reports from 1894-1900 as obtained from 

 the Kullu forests and sold, the former at Rs. 15 to Rs. 27J per maund, the 

 latter at Rs. 8. Sir Walter Lawrence says that the seeds of /> Carota 

 are also used as an adulterant, but this cannot be done to any great extent since 

 carrot-seed is not abundant and is also easily distinguishable from caraway, 

 while the dyed Bupieiiruin can with difficulty be separated. 



The uses of this caraway, so far as can be ascertained, seem identical with 

 those of c. Cnmi. From Bashahr large quantities of black caraway are 

 conveyed annually to Rampur and thence distributed via Amritsar all over 

 India. Amritsar also receives the Kashmir, Afghanistan and N. Himalayan 

 supplies. Other emporia are Karachi and Cawnpore ; the former obtains its 

 supplies from Hazara and Baluchistan, the latter from Garhwal and Kumaon. 

 The price at Cawnpore varies according to quality from Rs. 25 to Rs. 44 per 

 maund of 52 seers, but the consumption is very limited and the sales are usually 

 in small parcels of to 2 maunds. In addition to an Indian supply, Bombay 

 imports from Persia. The wholesale price is said to be Rs. 8 per 37 Ib. (= Surat 

 maund), and the retail price for cleaned fruit 8 annas per Ib. [Cf. Pharmacog. 

 2nd., ii., 120 ; Kaye, Settl. Kept. Baltistan Dist., Kashmir, 1889, 16 ; Rivett, 

 Assess. Rept. Muzaffarabad, Kashmir, 1899, 10, 12, 50, app. xxv. ; For. Admin. 

 Repts. Pb., 1894-5 to 1901-2 ; Rev. Working Plans, Pangi For., Chamba, 1901, 

 2 ; Rept. Cent. Indig. Drugs Comm., 1901, i., 113 ; etc., etc.] 



C. Carui, Linn. ; Fl. Br. Ind., ii., 680. The European Caraway, 

 Carve, Kiimmel, zirah, Jcaroya, Jcarawya. The vernacular names are in 

 the main, of course, those given under the foregoing species, though some- 

 times to the name zerah is prefixed a description, as miiha (sweet), vilayati 

 (foreign), or safed (white). 



As met with in India the fruits are mainly imported, but the plant is probably 

 occasionally cultivated in gardens on the plains as a cold-season crop. The 

 repeated though vague statements of its existence in India " wild and cultivated " 

 seem likely to be due mainly to confusion with c. Buibocastanum . There is, 

 however, a fairly large import trade in the spice and it may be well to epitomise 

 here a few of the chief uses of caraway, always premising that when such uses 

 can be attributed to the Indian-grown caraway, the reference is in all proba- 

 bility to c. Buibocastanum. The seed is employed both powdered and entire. 

 In the former condition it is an important ingredient in curry powders ; in 

 the latter it is put into cakes, biscuits, etc. As a MKDICINE it is stimulant, 

 carminative and astringent. But it is frequently used in flavouring cordials and 

 certain preparations of Indian hemp (bhang). A valuable essential OIL, obtained 

 from the fruits, is employed in medicine and as a perfume for soaps. The distilled 

 oil is first mentioned in the price ordinances of Berlin for 1574 and in the Dis- 

 pensatorium Noricum (1589). The two valuable constituents in the oil are 

 can/one (formerly, carvol), which is the essential and odour-bearing body and 

 possesses all the qualities of the drug in a pure form ; and caruene or limonene, 

 a by-product, not suitable for liqueurs but " can be satisfactorily employed 

 instead of caraway oil in medium and cheap soaps" (Schimmel & Co., Semi- 

 Ann. Rept., April 1892, 12). The percentage of oil varies apparently according to 

 cultivation and country of origin. Of the European sorts the Bavarian wild 

 plant yields the highest percentage, 6'5 to 7, whilst the Russian stock yields 

 only 3-2 per cent. The sp. gr. lies between 0'907 and 0'915 ; oils of lower sp. 

 gr. rarely occur, and are less valuable as they contain less carvone. [Cf. Gilde- 

 meister and Hoffmann, Volatile Oils, 550-8.] A case of poisoning by caraway- 

 seed presented symptoms similar to those induced by other essential oils. \Cf. Ind. 

 Med. Gaz., 1896, 145.] It may be added that caraway from which the oil has 

 been expressed is dried in special apparatus and used as a CATTLE FOOD, being 

 prized for its high percentage of crude protein (20 to 23-5 per cent.) and fat 

 (14 to 16 per cent.). \Cf. Paulus JEgineta (Adams, transl.), iii., 158 ; E.I.G. First 

 Letter Book, 201, 480 ; Bentham, Comment, on Targioni-Tozzetti, in Journ. Hort. 

 Soc., ix., 145 ; Wiesner, Die Rohst. dee Pflanzenr., ii., 794.] 



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