Nigella sativa

Nigella sativa
Scientific classification
Kingdom:Plantae
Clade:Angiosperms
Clade:Eudicots
Order:Ranunculales
Family:Ranunculaceae
Genus:Nigella
Species: N. sativa
Binomial name
Nigella sativa
Synonyms[1]
  • Nigella cretica Mill.

Nigella sativa (black caraway, also known as black cumin, nigella, and kalonji)[2][3][4] is an annual flowering plant in the family Ranunculaceae, native to south and southwest Asia.

N. sativa grows to 20–30 cm (7.9–11.8 in) tall, with finely divided, linear (but not thread-like) leaves. The flowers are delicate, and usually colored pale blue and white, with five to ten petals.

The fruit is a large and inflated capsule composed of three to seven united follicles, each containing numerous seeds which are used as spice, sometimes as a replacement for black cumin (Bunium bulbocastanum).

Etymology

The genus name Nigella is a diminutive of the Latin niger (black), referring to the seeds.[5]

Common names

In English, N. sativa and its seed are variously called black caraway, black cumin, fennel flower, nigella, nutmeg flower, Roman coriander,[3] and kalonji (from Hindi-Urdu).[6]

Blackseed and black caraway may also refer to Bunium persicum.[7]

Description

Culinary uses

The seeds of N. sativa are used as a spice in Indian and Middle Eastern cuisines. The black seeds taste like a combination of onions, black pepper, and oregano. They have a pungent, bitter taste and smell.[6]

The dry-roasted seeds flavor curries, vegetables, and pulses. They can be used as a "pepper" in recipes with pod fruit, vegetables, salads, and poultry. In some cultures, the black seeds are used to flavor bread products, and are used as part of the spice mixture panch phoron (meaning a mixture of five spices) and alone in many recipes in Bengali cuisine and most recognizably in naan.[8] Nigella is also used in Armenian string cheese, a braided string cheese called majdouleh or majdouli in the Middle East.

History

Archaeological evidence about the earliest cultivation of N. sativa "is still scanty", but N. sativa seeds were found in several sites from ancient Egypt, including Tutankhamun's tomb.[9] Seeds were found in a Hittite flask in Turkey from the second millennium BCE.[10]

N. sativa may have been used as a condiment of the Old World to flavor food.[9] The Persian physician, Avicenna, in his Canon of Medicine, described N. sativa as a treatment for dyspnea.[11]

Chemistry

N. sativa oil contains linoleic acid, oleic acid, palmitic acid, and trans-anethole, and other minor constituents.[6] Aromatics include thymoquinone, dihydrothymoquinone, p-cymene, carvacrol, α-thujene, thymol, α-pinene, β-pinene and trans-anethole.

Research

Preliminary studies have investigated claims from traditional medicine that N. sativa has efficacy as a therapy, mainly using the seed oil extract, volatile oil, and isolated constituent thymoquinone.[12] One meta-analysis of clinical trials found weak evidence that N. sativa has a short-term benefit on lowering systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and another found limited evidence that various extracts of black seed can reduce triglycerides and LDL and total cholesterol, while raising HDL cholesterol.[13][14]

References

  1. ↑ "The Plant List: A Working List of All Plant Species".
  2. ↑ "BSBI List 2007". Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland. Archived from the original (xls) on 2015-01-25. Retrieved 2014-10-17.
  3. 1 2 "Nigella sativa". Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN). Agricultural Research Service (ARS), United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Retrieved 2017-12-11.
  4. ↑ Heiss, Andreas (December 2005). "The oldest evidence of Nigella damascena L. (Ranunculaceae) and its possible introduction to central Europe". Vegetation History and Archaeobotany. 14 (4): 562–570. doi:10.1007/s00334-005-0060-4. JSTOR 23419312. (Registration required (help)).
  5. ↑ Hyam, R. & Pankhurst, R.J. (1995). Plants and their names : a concise dictionary. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-866189-4. p. 341.
  6. 1 2 3 Bharat B Aggarwal. Molecular Targets and Therapeutic Uses of Spices. Google Books. p. 259. ISBN 978-981-4468-95-4. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  7. ↑ Bunium persicum - (Boiss.) B.Fedtsch. Common Name Black Caraway
  8. ↑ Bramen L (16 February 2011). "Nigella Seeds: What the Heck Do I Do with Those?". smithsonian.com. The Smithsonian Online. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  9. 1 2 Zohary, Daniel; Hopf, Maria; Weiss, Ehud (2012). Domestication of Plants in the Old World: The Origin and Spread of Domesticated Plants in Southwest Asia, Europe, and the Mediterranean Basin (Fourth ed.). Oxford: University Press. p. 206. ISBN 9780199549061.
  10. ↑ Saliha B, Sipahib T, Oybak Dönmez, E (2009). "Ancient nigella seeds from Boyalı Höyük in north-central Turkey". Journal of Ethnopharmacology. 124 (3): 416–20. doi:10.1016/j.jep.2009.05.039.
  11. ↑ Avicenna (1999). Canon of Medicine. Chicago: Kazi Publications.
  12. ↑ Ali BH, Blunden G (2003). "Pharmacological and toxicological properties of Nigella sativa". Phytother Res. 17 (4): 299–305. doi:10.1002/ptr.1309. PMID 12722128.
  13. ↑ Sahebkar A, Soranna D, Liu X, et al. (2016). "A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials investigating the effects of supplementation with Nigella sativa (black seed) on blood pressure". J Hypertens. 34 (11): 2127–35. doi:10.1097/HJH.0000000000001049. PMID 27512971.
  14. ↑ Sahebkar A, Beccuti G, Simental-Mendía LE, et al. (2016). "Nigella sativa (black seed) effects on plasma lipid concentrations in humans: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized placebo-controlled trials". Pharmacol Res. 106: 37–50. doi:10.1016/j.phrs.2016.02.008. PMID 26875640.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.