270 Handbook of herbs and spices
15.1 Introduction
Caraway (Carum carvi L.) of the Apiaceae family, appears to have its origin in Asia
Minor. The evidence of caraway was found in Middle Eastern Asia about 5000 years
ago. The plant was well known to the ancient Egyptians and was introduced about
1000 years ago from northern Africa into Europe (Rubatzky et al., 1999). Caraway
seeds have been mainly used as a condiment for flavouring food preparations into
Europe and the Middle East from ancient times. It is known to be cultivated in the
Netherlands, Holland, Russia, Hungary, Poland, Denmark, Germany and Norway.
The other producing countries are Romania, Bulgaria, Morocco, the USA, Syria,
Turkey and India. The major commercial sources of caraway in the world are the
Netherlands and Germany, where it is extensively cultivated.
There are about 25 species of Carum known to occur and only Carum carvi L. has
an economic importance, being used and cultivated in several regions. It is commonly
called caraway and is popular by different names in different countries. It is called
carvi in French and Italian, kummel in German, alcaravea in Spanish, karvy in
Dutch, kminek in Polish, komeny in Hungarian, siah zeera in India. All European
countries have their own, however, to some extent similar names for this species and
these names might be traced back to the Arabian ‘karauya’ from the XII century
(Rosengarten, 1969). It is also called sushva, krishna jiraka or black cumin in India.
The caraway (Carum carvi L.) is usually confused with black caraway (Carum
bulbocastanum Koch, Bunicum persicum Boiss) and Nigella (Nigella sativa L.)
because of the common vernacular names, but they are botanically different from
each other.
15.1.1 Classification
In a classification of plant organs used as spice, the caraway has been categorized as
a seed spice because seeds (botanically fruits) are used raw, powdered or in the form
of essential oil or oleoresins. As per the taxonomic classification, the caraway belongs
to the order Apiales, family Apiaceae, genus Carum and species carvi. The other
15 Caraway....................................................................................................
S. K. Malhotra, National Research Centre on Seed Spices, India