Thursday, September 1, 2011

Cumin essential oil

Cumin essential oil, cuminum cyminum, is used as a general stimulant but especially for digestive complaints such as colic, sluggish digestion and dyspepsia. The older herbalists esteemed Cumin oil superior in comforting carminative qualities to fennel or caraway oils. Formerly Cumin had considerable repute as a corrective for the flatulency of languid digestion and as a remedy for colic and dyspeptic headache. Cumin essential oil is used in veterinary medicine in digestive preparations. It's also used as a fragrance component in cosmetics and perfumes, and a flavour ingredient in many foods and drinks, especially meat products and condiments
Cumin is a small, delicate, annual herb about 50cm high with a slender stem, dark green feathery leaves and small pink or white flowers followed by small oblong seed. The essential oil extracted by steam distillation from the ripe seeds. Cumin oil has now gone out of use in european medicine, having been replaced by caraway seed oil, which has a more agreeable flavor, but it is still used to some extent in India, in native medicine. Its principal employment is in veterinary medicine. It is limpid and pale yellow in color, and is mainly a mixture of cymol or cymene and cuminic aldehyde, or cyminol, which is its chief constituent. The oil is produced mainly in India, Spain, and France.
Cumin essential oil, cuminum cyminum, blends well with the following essential oils: lavender, lavandin, rosemary, galbanum, rosewood, cardamom and oriental-type fragrances.
Cumin oil cautions - Nontoxic, nonirritant (except in concentration). It may cause sensitization in some individuals. Menthol is a dermal irritant.
Cumin essential oil properties - Anti-oxidant, antiseptic, antispasmodic, antitoxic, aphrodisiac, bactericidal, carminative, depurative, digestive, diuretic, emmenagogue, larvicidal, nervine, stimulant, tonic.

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