Plant
Cumin
Cuminum cyminum
Also known as: Cuminum cyminum
An annual herb in the carrot family (Apiaceae), native to the eastern Mediterranean and western Asia. The small dried seeds are one of the most-traded spices in the world by volume, foundational to Indian, Middle Eastern, North African, Mexican, and Texan/American Southwestern cuisines. Cumin is one of the oldest documented cultivated spices — seeds have been recovered from 6,000-year-old Syrian archaeological sites; the species was central to ancient Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Greek, and Roman cooking and medicine.
Scientific
Cuminum cyminum (family Apiaceae) is in the same family as carrot, parsley, fennel, cilantro, and dill. The plant is a slender annual; the harvested part is the small dried seeds (technically achene fruits). Principal aromatic compound: cuminaldehyde and related compounds.
The genus is monotypic — Cuminum cyminum is the only commercially significant species. “Black cumin” (Nigella sativa or Bunium persicum, depending on which is meant) is a different plant in a different family and should not be confused with true cumin.
Cultural and historical
Cumin appears in Egyptian medical papyri (~1500 BCE); the seeds have been found in Tutankhamun’s tomb. The Greeks and Romans used cumin extensively — Pliny describes it as the only spice that made fashionable Romans appear pale and studious (consumed in excess, supposedly).
Foundational cuisine applications:
- Indian — jeera is one of the four canonical Indian seed spices alongside mustard, fennel, and fenugreek; toasted whole in oil at the start of countless dishes (the tarka / chaunk technique); ground into garam masala blends
- Middle Eastern — Lebanese kibbeh, Egyptian koshary, Yemeni zhug, Iranian abgoosht
- North African — Moroccan tagines and ras el hanout, Tunisian harissa, Egyptian dukkah
- Mexican — taco seasoning, adobo, refried beans
- Tex-Mex / American Southwest — chili powder blends rely heavily on cumin
The Spanish-Portuguese 16th-century carriage of cumin into Latin America transformed Mexican cuisine permanently — the entire modern Mexican spice profile is partly cumin-based, despite the species being a 16th-century arrival.
Global production
Top producers: India (~70% of global supply), Syria, Turkey, Iran, China.
See also
Auto-generated from this entry’s typed relations: frontmatter, grouped by relation type so the editorial signal isn’t flattened.
- Shares approach with: carrot · parsley · fennel · cilantro · dill · mustard · fenugreek
- Member of: plants
Sources
- Wikipedia — Cumin
A plant entry in the 0mn1.one directory.
What links here, and how
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Scientific
cousin of
- Cilantro / coriander Apiaceae kin — and culinary kin: cumin (the seed) and coriander (also a seed, from cilantro) are paired in almost every Indian, Mexican, and Middle Eastern curry/spice mix.
Cultural
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