_Semen Carui vel Carvi_; _Caraway Fruits_, _Caraway Seeds_, _Caraways_;
F. _Fruits ou Semences de Carvi_; G. _Kümmel_.
=Botanical Origin=—_Carum Carvi_ L., an erect annual or biennial plant
not unlike a carrot, growing in meadows and moist grassy land over the
northern and midland parts of Europe and Asia, but to what extent truly
wild cannot be always ascertained.
It is much cultivated in Iceland, and is also apparently wild.[1159]
It grows throughout Scandinavia, in Finland, Arctic, Central, and
Southern Russia, Persia, and in Siberia. It appears as a wild plant
in many parts of Britain (Lincolnshire and Yorkshire), but is also
cultivated in fields, and may not be strictly indigenous. The caraway
is found throughout the eastern part of France, in the Pyrenees,
Spain, Central Europe, Armenia, and the Caucasian provinces; and it
grows wild largely in the high alpine region of Lahul, in the Western
Himalaya.[1160]
[1159] Babington in _Journ. of Linn. Soc._, Bot. xi. (1871) 310.
[1160] Aitchison in _Journ. of Linn. Soc._, Bot., x. (1869) 76. 94.
But the most curious fact in the distribution of _Carum Carvi_ is its
occurrence in Morocco, where it is largely cultivated about El Araiche,
and round the city of Morocco.[1161] The plant differs somewhat from
that of Europe; it is an annual with a single erect stem, 4 feet high.
Its foliage is more divided, and its flowers larger, with shorter
styles and on more spreading umbels than the common caraway, and its
fruit is more elongated.[1162]
=History=—The opinion that this plant is the Κάρος of Dioscorides,
and that, as Pliny states, it derived its name from Caria (where it
has never been met with in modern times) has very reasonably been
doubted.[1163]
Caraway fruits were known to the Arabians, who called them _Karawya_,
a name they still bear in the East, and the original of our words
_caraway_ and _carui_, as well as of the Spanish _alcarahueya_. In the
description of Morocco by Edrisi,[1164] 12th century, it is stated that
the inhabitants of Sidjilmâsa (the south-eastern province) cultivate
cotton, _cumin_, _caraway_, henna (_Lawsonia alba_ Lamarck). In the
Arab writings quoted by Ibn Baytar,[1165] himself a Mauro-Spaniard of
the 13th century, caraway is compared to cumin and anise. The spice
probably came into use about this period. It is not noticed by St.
Isidore, archbishop of Seville in the 7th century, though he mentions
fennel, dill, coriander, anise, and parsley; nor is it named by St.
Hildegard in Germany in the 12th century. Neither have we found any
reference to it in the Anglo-Saxon _Herbarium of Apuleius_, written
_circa_ A.D. 1050,[1166] or in other works of the same period, though
cumin, anise, fennel, and dill are all mentioned.
On the other hand, in two German medicine-books of the 12th and 13th
centuries[1167] there occurs the word _Cumich_, which is still the
popular name of caraway, in Southern Germany; and _Cumin_ is also
mentioned. In the same period the seeds appear to have been used by
the Welsh physicians of Myddvai.[1168] Caraway was certainly in use in
England at the close of the 14th century, as it figures with coriander,
pepper and garlick in the _Form of Cury_, a roll of ancient English
cookery compiled by the master-cooks of Richard II. about A.D. 1390.
[1161] Leared in _Pharm. Journ._ Feb. 8, 1873. 623.
[1162] I have cultivated the Morocco plant in 1872 and 1873 by the side
of the common form.—D. H.
[1163] Dierbach, _Flora Apiciana_, 1831. 53.
[1164] _Description de l’Afrique et de l’Espagne trad. par Dozy et M.
J. de Goeje_, Leyde, 1866, 75. 97. 150.
[1165] Sontheimer’s translation, ii. 368.
[1166] _Leechdoms, etc. of Early England_, i. (1864).
[1167] Pfeiffer, _Zwei deutsche Arzneibücher aus dem xii. und xiii.
Jahrhundert_, Wien 1863. 14.
[1168] _Meddygon Myddfai_, 158. 354.
The oriental names of caraway show that as a spice it is not a
production of the East:—thus we find it termed _Roman_ (i.e.
_European_), _Armenian_, _mountain_, or _foreign Cumin_; _Persian_ or
_Andalusian_ _Caraway_; or _foreign Anise_. And though it is now sold
in the Indian bazaars, its name does not occur in the earlier lists of
Indian spices.
=Cultivation=[1169]—In England, the caraway is cultivated exclusively
in Kent and Essex, on clay lands. It was formerly sown mixed with
coriander and teazel seed, but now with the former only. The plant,
which requires the most diligent and careful cultivation, yields in its
second year a crop which is ready for harvesting in the beginning of
July. It is cut with a hook at about a foot from the ground, and a few
days afterwards may be thrashed. The produce is very variable, but may
be stated at 4 to 8 cwt. per acre.
=Description=—The fruits, which in structure correspond to those of
other plants of the order, are laterally compressed and ovate. The
mericarps which hang loosely suspended from the arms of the carpophore,
are in the English drug about ⅙ of an inch in length and ¹/₂₀ in
diameter, subcylindrical, slightly arched, and tipped with the conical,
shrivelled stylopodium. They are marked with five pale ridges, nearly
half as broad as the shining, dark brown furrows, each of which is
furnished with a conspicuous vitta; a pair of vittæ separated from each
other by a comparatively thin fibro-vascular bundle, occurs on the
commissure.
Caraways are somewhat horny and translucent; when bruised, they evolve
an agreeable fragrance resembling that of dill, and they have a
pleasant spicy taste. In the London market, they are distinguished as
_English_, _Dutch_, _German_, and _Mogador_, the first sort fetching
the highest price. The fruit varies in size, tint and flavour; the
English is shorter and plumper than the others; the Mogador is paler,
stalky, and elongated—often ³/₁₀ of an inch in length.
=Microscopic Structure=—Caraways are especially distinguished by their
enormous vittæ, which in transverse section display a triangular
outline, the largest diameter, _i.e._ the base of the triangle, often
attaining as much as 300 mkm. Even those of the commissure are usually
not smaller.
=Chemical Composition=—Caraways contain a volatile oil, which the Dutch
drug affords to the extent of 5·5 per cent., that grown in Germany to
the amount of 7 per cent.[1170]; in Norway 5·8 per cent. have also been
obtained from indigenous caraways.[1171] The position and size of the
vittæ account for the fact that comminution of the fruits previous to
distillation, does not increase the yield of oil.
Völckel (1840) showed that the oil is a mixture of a hydrocarbon
C₁₀H₁₆, and an oxygenated oil, C₁₀H₁₄O. Berzelius subsequently termed
the former _Carvene_ and the latter _Carvol_.
Carvene, constituting about one-third of the crude oil, boils at 173°
C., and forms with dry hydrochloric gas crystals of C₁₀H₁₆ + 2HCl.
It has been ascertained by us that carvene, as well as carvol, has a
dextrogyrate power, that of carvene being considerably the stronger;
there are probably not many liquids exhibiting a stronger dextrogyrate
rotation. Carvene is of a weaker odour than carvol, from which it has
not yet been absolutely deprived; perfectly pure carvene would no
doubt prove no longer to possess the specific odour of the drug. By
distilling it over sodium it acquires a rather pleasant odour; its
spec. gr. at 15° C. is equal to 0·861.
[1169] Morton, _Cyclop. of Agriculture_, i. (1855) 390.
[1170] Information obligingly supplied by Messrs. Schimmel & Co.,
Leipzig.
[1171] Schübeler, _Pflanzenwelt Norwegens_. Christiania, 1863-1875. 85.
Carvol at 20° C. has a sp. gr. of 0·953; it boils at 224° C.; the same
oil appears to occur in dill (see Fructus Anethi), and an oil of the
same percental constitution is yielded by the spearmint. The latter
however deviates the plane of polarization to the left. If 4 parts of
carvol, either from caraways, dill, or spearmint, are mixed with 1 part
of alcohol, sp. gr. 0·830, and saturated with sulphuretted hydrogen,
crystals of (C₁₀H₁₄C)₂SH₂ are at once formed as soon as a little
ammonia is added.[1172]
Oil of caraway of inferior quality is obtained from the refuse of the
fruit; we find it less dextrogyrate than the oil from the fruits alone;
this is due to the admixture of oil of turpentine before distilling.
If the carvol is distilled there remains in the still a thickish
residue, from which a substance of the phenol class may be extracted by
caustic lye.
Oil of caraway distilled in England from home-grown caraways is
preferred in this country. On the Continent, that extracted from the
caraways of Halle and Holland is considered to be of finer flavour than
the oil obtained from those of Southern Germany.
The immature fruit of caraway is rich in tannic matter, striking blue
with a salt of iron. It occurs abundantly in the tissue around the
oil-ducts, where the presence of sugar may be also detected by alkaline
tartrate of copper. Sugar occurs likewise in the embryo, but not in the
albumen, in which latter protein substances predominate.
=Production and Commerce=—Caraways are exported from Finmark, the most
northerly province of Norway; from Finland and Russia. In Germany, the
cultivation, recommended by Gleditsch in 1776, is now largely carried
on in Moravia, and in Prussia, especially in the neighbourhood of
Halle. The districts of Erfurt and Merseburg, also in Prussia, are
stated to yield annually about 30,000 cwt. Dutch caraways are produced
in the provinces of North Holland, Gelderland and North Brabant, in the
latter two from wild plants.[1173] Caraways are frequently shipped from
the ports of Morocco; the quantity exported thence in 1872 was 952 cwt.
and 288 cwt. in 1875.[1174]
The import of caraways into the United Kingdom in 1870 amounted to
19,160 cwt., almost all being from Holland.
The essential oil is manufactured on a large scale. According to
a statement of the Chamber of Commerce of Leipzig,[1175] four
establishments of that district produced in 1872 no less a quantity
than 30,955 kilo. (68,277 lb.), valued at £24,000.
=Uses=—Caraway in the form of essential oil or distilled water is used
in medicine as an aromatic stimulant, or as a flavouring ingredient.
But the consumption in Europe is far more important as a spice, in
bread, cakes, cheese, pastry, confectionary, sauces, etc., or in the
form of oil as an ingredient of alcoholic liquors. The oil is also used
for the scenting of soap.
[1172] _Pharm. Journ._ vii. (1876) 75.
[1173] Oudemans, _Aanteekeningen_, etc., Rotterdam, 1854-1856. 351.
[1174] _Consular Reports_, 1873 and 1876.
[1175] _Pharmaceutische Zeitung_, 15th April 1874.