_Semen Fœnugræci; Fenugreek_; F. _Semences de Fenugrec_; G.
_Bockshornsamen._
=Botanical Origin=—_Trigonella Fœnum græcum_ L., an erect,
sub-glabrous, annual plant, 1 to 2 feet high, with solitary,
subsessile, whitish flowers; indigenous to the countries surrounding
the Mediterranean, in which it has been long cultivated, and whence it
appears to have spread to India.
=History=—In the old Egyptian preparation _Kyphi_, an ingredient “Sebes
or Sebtu” is mentioned, which is thought by Ebers to mean fenugreek.
This plant was well known to the Roman writers on husbandry, as Porcius
Cato (B.C. 234-149) who calls it _Fœnum Græcum_ and directs it to be
sown as fodder for oxen. It is the τῇλις of Dioscorides and other Greek
writers. Its mucilaginous seeds, “siliquæ” of the Roman peasants, were
valued as an aliment and condiment for man, and as such are still
largely consumed in the East. They were likewise supposed to possess
many medicinal virtues, and had a place in the pharmacopœias of the
last century.
The cultivation of fenugreek in Central Europe was encouraged by
Charlemagne (A.D. 812), and the plant was grown in English gardens in
the 16th century.
=Description=—The fenugreek plant has a sickle-shaped pod, 3 to 4
inches long, containing 10 to 20 hard, brownish-yellow seeds, having
the smell and taste which is characteristic of peas and beans, with
addition of a cumarin-or melilot-flavour.
The seeds are about ⅛ of an inch long, with a rhomboid outline, often
shrivelled and distorted; they are somewhat compressed, with the hilum
on the sharper edge, and a deep furrow running from it and almost
dividing the seed into two unequal lobes. When the seed is macerated in
warm water, its structure becomes easily visible. The testa bursts by
the swelling of the internal membrane or endopleura, which like a thick
gelatinous sac encloses the cotyledons and their very large hooked
radicle.
=Microscopic Structure=—The most interesting structural peculiarity of
this seed arises from the fact that the mucilage with which it abounds
is not yielded by the cells of the epidermis, but by a loose tissue
closely surrounding the embryo.[700]
=Chemical Composition=—The cells of the testa contain tannin; the
cotyledons a yellow colouring matter, but no sugar. The air-dried
seeds give off 10 per cent. of water at 100° C., and on subsequent
incineration leave 7 per cent. of ash, of which nearly a fourth is
phosphoric acid.
Ether extracts from the pulverized seeds 6 per cent. of a fœtid, fatty
oil, having a bitter taste. Amylic alcohol removes in addition a small
quantity of resin. Alcohol added to a concentrated aqueous extract,
forms a precipitate of mucilage, amounting when dried to 28 per cent.
Burnt with soda-lime, the seeds yielded to Jahns[701] 3·4 per cent. of
nitrogen, equivalent to 22 per cent. of albumin. No researches have
been yet made to determine the nature of the odorous principle.
=Production and Commerce=—Fenugreek is cultivated in Morocco, in the
south of France near Montpellier, in a few places in Switzerland, in
Alsace, and in some other provinces of the German and Austrian empires,
as Thuringia and Moravia. It is produced on a far larger scale in
Egypt, where it is known by the Arabic name _Hulba_, and whence it is
exported to Europe and India. In 1873 it was stated that the profits
of the European growers were much reduced by the seed being largely
exported from Mogador and Bombay.
Under the Sanscrit name of _Methi_, which has passed, slightly
modified, into several of the modern Indian languages, fenugreek is
much grown in the plains of India during the cool season. In the year
1872-73, the quantity of seed exported from Sind to Bombay was 13,646
cwt., valued at £4,405.[702] From the port of Bombay there were shipped
in the same year 9,655 cwt., of which only 100 cwt. are reported as for
the United Kingdom.[703]
=Uses=—In Europe fenugreek as a medicine is obsolete, but the powdered
seeds are still often sold by chemists for veterinary pharmacy and as
an ingredient of curry powder. The chief consumption is, however, in
the so-called _Cattle Foods_.
The fresh plant in India is commonly eaten as a green vegetable, while
the seeds are extensively used by the natives in food and medicine.
[700] Figured by Lanessan in his French translation of the
_Pharmacographia_, i. (1878) 345.
[701] Experiments performed in my laboratory in 1867.—F. A. F.
[702] _Annual Statement of the Trade and Navigation of Sind_, for the
year 1872-73, printed at Karachi, 1873. p. 36.
[703] _Annual Statement_, etc., Bombay, 1873. 89.