Caraway 277
samples were carvone (40–60%) and limonene (38–54%). High carvone contents
were observed in a Norwegian and an Icelandic population. The carvone and limonene
ratio of wild populations from northern parts of Finland was higher than that from
southern parts.
Populations from higher elevations in the Alps also had high carvone:limonene
ratios (Galambosi and Peura, 1996). The caraway selections A.Car-01-91 and A.Car-
01-94 both annual types are being acclimatized to semi-arid conditions in India for
high yield and essential oil content (Malhotra, 2005). The caraway, Bi-An, a new
biennial cultivar which flowers in the first year of growth, was selected from commercial
biennial varieties of caraway, and was grown in the field at Newe Ya’ar, Israel. The
composition of the essential oil, hydro-distilled from fruits of the new cultivar, was
analyzed. The main constituents of the essential oil were limonene (50.16%) and d-
carvone (46.74%) (Putievsky et al., 1994).
15.2.9 Organic farming
In recent years, organic agriculture has gained importance and many farmers are
showing interest in organic farming. The demand for organic caraway is steadily
increasing, because many consumers have a preference for the organic product of this
group of spices. The importance of organic farming can be inferred from the fact that
some European countries are supporting organic agriculture by giving subsidies for
conversion. Demand for organic spices varies considerably from country to country
and the kind of spices in a particular country. The European countries, the USA,
Canada and Japan are by far the largest markets and looking far organic spices from
the high-productivity areas in the world. The newly emerging markets for organic
spices are Australia, New Zealand and some other European countries.
No reliable published data is available for caraway organic seed production and
export but as a whole it is not more than 20 tonnes as assessed from important buyers.
The major organic caraway-producing countries are the Netherlands, Germany and
Norway. Keeping in mind the growing demand for organic spices in the global
market, it is necessary to give a boost to the organic farming of spices by tackling a
few issues related to the costly and cumbersome land certification system and availability
of the technical knowhow especially on production, processing, storage and market
information. The future demand for organic spices appears to be bright. The general
and specific guidelines for organic production of seed spices including caraway have
been detailed by Malhotra and Vashishtha, (2004).
15.3 Chemical structure..........................................................................
Chemical composition varies with variety region, stage of harvest and method of
distillate. The ground seed of caraway yields up to 5–7.5% volatile oil, consisting
primarily of 60% d-carvone and 15% fixed oil, of which oleic, linoleic, petroselinic,
and palmitic are the major fatty acids. Caraway grown in the northern latitudes yields
higher quantities of volatile oil than that cultivated in the warmer climates. The
essential oil content varies with stage of harvest, variety of caraway and geographical
region and has been reported by various workers ranging from 0.99% to 8.1% (El
Wakeil et al., 1986; Atal and Sood, 1967). The chief constituents of essential oil of
caraway range from 47–81.17%, carvone and 9.4–48.7%, limonene to which chiefly