Use : — Mahomedan writers describe them as sedative, pectoral and carminative ; they prepare an eyewash from them which is suppossed to prevent small-pox from destroying the sight, and to be useful in chronic conjunctivitis. It is also thought to lessen the intoxicating effects of spirituous preparations, and, with barley meal, to form a useful poultice for indolent swellings (Dymock).
In native practice, is used as a carminative, refrigerant, diuretic, tonic and aphrodisiac. The dried fruit and the volatile oil are used as an aromatic stimulant in colic. The seeds' are chewed to correct foul breath.
It is officinal in both Indian and British Pharmacopoeias.
The juice of the fresh plant is used as an application to erythema caused by the application of marking nut ; the bruised plant is a cooling application in cases of headache (Sakharam Arjun).
584. Cuminum Cyminum, Linn, h.f.b.i., ii. 718, Roxb. 271.
Sans :— Jiraku.
Vern. : — Zirâ (H.); Jirâ (B. and Bomb.); Jir (Mar.); Shiragam (Tam.) ; Jiraka (Tel.).
Habitat : — Extensively cultivated in Rajputana and other parts of North India.
A slender, annual herb, glabrous except the fruit. Leaves twice or thrice 3-partite, ultimate segment filiform. Umbels compound, rays few ; bract and bracteoles several, linear, rigid. Calyx-teeth small, subulate, unequal. Petals oblong or obovate, emarginate, white, often unequal. Fruit cylindric, tip narrowed ; primary ridge filiform, distinct ; secondary usually hispidulous ; vittæ large, solitary under each secondary ridge ; corpophore 2-partite or 2-fid. Seed somewhat dorsally compressed, convexo-concave.
" The fruits resemble very much those of the Carraway, but they are larger and of a lighter colour, and each half of the fruit has nine ridges instead of five." (Duthie).
