Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  \ 
Dec.  1,1871.  J 
Nigella  Seeds^  or  Black  Cummin. 
545 
NIGELLA  SEEDS,  OR  BLACK  CUMMIN. 
By  Dr.  F.  A.  Fluckiger,  Professor  in  the  University  of  Bern. 
These  seeds,  which  had  a  place  in  the  Bengal  Pharmacopoeia  (1844), 
are  included  in  the  Pharmacopoeia  of  India  (1868)  among  the  "non- 
officinal"  articles.  But,  as  they  are  still  of  considerable  importance 
in  the  Bast,  and  are  even  in  use  in  some  parts  of  Europe,  I  have 
thought  that  a  few  particulars  regarding  the  experiments  I  have  made 
upon  them  may  not  be  uninteresting  to  the  readers  of  the  Pharma- 
ceutical Journal. 
Name. — In  pharmacy  they  have  been  termed  Semen  Nigellce,  s. 
Melanthii,  s.  Cumini  nigri.  In  English  the  plant  bears  the  name  of 
Nigella^  Black  Cummin,  Gith,  or  Bishopswort ;  in  German  the  seeds 
are  called  Schwarzhilmmel  or  Nardensame  ;  in  French  Cumin  noir, 
{}raine  de  Nigelle  romaine,  or  Poivrette.  Most  of  the  Indian  names 
signify,  when  translated.  Black  Cummin. 
Botanical  Origin. — Nigella  sativa,  L.  [N  indiea,  Roxb.),  belongs 
to  the  Order  Ranunculacece  and  is  an  annual  herb,  8  to  12  inches 
high,  with  leaves  cut  into  numerous,  narrow,  pinnate  segments.  The 
flowers  are  solitary,  terminal,  without  an  involucre ;  the  petals  blue 
and  white,  with  greenish  glands.  The  capsule  is  formed  of  3  to  6 
carpels,  opening  by  the  ventral  suture.  The  plant  grows  on  the  Medi- 
terranean coasts,  in  Egypt  and  Trans-Caucasia,  whence  it  has  spread 
to  India.  Boissier*  regards  the  var.  /?  hraehyloha,  occurring  in  Cili- 
oia  and  Syria,  as  the  original  type  of  the  plant  in  a  wild  state. 
Nigella  saliva  is  now  widely  distributed  as  a  corn-field  weed  through- 
out temperate  Europe  and  America,t  though  not  in  Britain.  In  Ger- 
many it  is  cultivated  to  some  extent  near  Erfurt. 
History. — Nigella  is  thought  by  some  to  be  the  kezach  of  Isaiah 
(xxviii,  25),  translated  in  the  English  Bible  fitches. 
Dioscorides  described  the  plant  clearly  under  the  name  of  MsMu- 
deov.  Pliny  called  it  Grit,  under  which  appellation  it  is  found  among 
the  plants  which  Charlemagne  ordered  to  be  cultivated  on  the  impe- 
rial farms  of  his  dominions.  This  name,  however,  was  frequently 
applied  in  the  middle  ages  to  the  Corn  Cockle,  Agrostemma  G-ithago, 
L.,  which  is,  indeed,  termed  by  Gerarde  Bastard  Nigella,  In  his  time, 
*  Flora  Orientalis,  i,  68. 
f  Though  occasionally  cultivated  in  gardens,  the  plant  is  scarcely  naturalized 
in  the  United  States. — Editor  Amer.  Jour.  Pharm. 
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