Nigella sowing - a medicinal and spicy plant on your site

India has always been famous for the spices growing there. Among them are kalindzhi, which everyone calls simply black seed for the color of the seeds, or black caraway seeds, coriander for its spicy taste. And for the beauty of a fluffy flower - with the hair of Venus and a girl in greenery.

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Description of the plant

Description of the plant

Sowing nigella is the only plant in the buttercup family that can be eaten. On a straight, low stem, covered with soft fluff, bright blue or white flowers are striking, which open in cloudy weather and twilight. They have no smell.

One stem can contain up to 30 flowers. Many stamens rise above the five oval petals, while the pistils are much smaller. Caraway leaves are black greenish with a gray tint. The fruit of the plant is original: five leaflets swollen and fused together, wrapped in a thin openwork surface of leaves.

Inside the box with a long nose are black, wrinkled seeds with tubercles, so similar to onions.

Hence the name of the flower. The plant blooms from mid-summer for two months. The life of one flower fits in five days. At the end of August and until October they ripen the seeds... Chernushka sowing wild is found in the territory of Asian and Mediterranean countries, grows in the steppe along the slopes and gardens. It is grown as a cultivated plant in the southern regions of Europe, America, Asia. In Russia, black cumin is found in garden plots and in fields in the Caucasus, Altai, and Crimea.

Composition and useful properties

Composition and useful properties

The benefits of nigella sowing are concentrated in the main seeds:

  • The seeds are rich in essential oils, which contain an odorous substance - melantol. They are a spicy oily liquid. Of the fatty oils, oleic and linoleic acids account for a larger percentage.
  • The alkaloid nickeline in them has a positive effect on the thymus gland, which is responsible for the aging mechanisms of the body.
  • The seeds contain alkaloids, steroids, lipases and other compounds.
  • Such active substances as nigellon help with asthmatic phenomena, and thymoquinone - with diseases of the liver and gallbladder.
  • Nigedase, an enzyme corresponding to lipases in the human body, can also be isolated in seeds.

Nigella leaves are also useful, as they contain reserves of vitamin C. Due to this composition, the seeds and leaves of the plant are used for various purposes. Spicy seeds have found use as a flavoring additive during canning, when salted for the winter. cucumbers, watermelons, zucchini and other vegetables, fermented cabbage, production of meat and fish products. Having a pleasant smell, they came in handy in perfumery, in the manufacture of soap.

As a seasoning, instead of pepper, the plant was familiar to the inhabitants of France in the Middle Ages, when, by order of the king, it was grown in every peasant garden. Unlike pepper, using this spice can avoid stomach irritation. Therefore, nutritionists recommend including it in the diet.

Produced from seed nigella oil is widely used in folk medicine.

And the seeds brewed in boiling water in the form of tea are known for their urine - and choleretic, antihelminthic, lactogenic properties. And if you shift woolen things with these seeds, then you can save them from damage by moths. Kalindzhi love bees, since it is from him that they collect a lot of nectar. This plant is a treasure trove of health benefits, and as a spice it is also in demand in cooking, cosmetology and nutrition.

Spice propagation

Spice propagation

For cultivation useful nigella in orchards sow its seeds into the soil at the end of April, embedding to a depth of no more than two centimeters. The soil for the plant is preferable loose with moderate moisture, clean from weeds... After about two weeks, the first shoots will appear, even if the air temperature is slightly above zero. Nigella grows slowly and begins to bloom in late June or early July.

The plant thrives even on poor soils.

In the garden, it looks good in rabatkas, borders, flower beds... In ancient times, the spice was sown directly on the fields, where it grew quite quickly and gave a rich harvest of useful seed. She is not even afraid of saline soils. But marshy, with high acidity of the earth is contraindicated for black cumin.

The mention of the cultivation of this plant is in the Bible, in the Old Testament. In ancient times, it was sown next to wheat and barley, and after the seeds ripened, they were knocked out with sticks. You can learn about many useful plants from ancient sources of writing and gain knowledge about their proper cultivation and use in improving the body.

Seed nigella care

Seed nigella care

It is not difficult to grow nigella, because it is undemanding to care for. Basic requirement:

  • Timely weeding and high-quality loosening of the soil in the aisles. The first time the planting of blackberry is weeded after the first shoots appear, and the second - when the plant reaches a height of 15 centimeters.
  • The soil between the rows of plantings is cultivated as a crust forms on the soil or weeds.
  • Nigella responds positively to fertilizers.

The seeds of the plant are harvested during the period when they are fully ripe. This time falls in September. Sowing nigella is cut, then tied into sheaves and dried in a ventilated room in the shade.

After drying, the sheaves are threshed, collecting the seeds and folding on storage in paper bags.

Taking care of the seed nigella, you can provide yourself with healing material for all diseases for many years.

Application in medicine

Medical and culinary applications

The owner of many useful qualities, the nigella plant is actively used to get rid of diseases:

  • Oil from the seeds of the plant was used as an anti-inflammatory agent, it perfectly heals the mucous membrane of the stomach and intestines, protects it from the effects of toxins obtained from alcohol and various toxic substances.
  • Diabetics are prescribed plant-based drugs, because thanks to them, the production of insulin by the pancreas is stimulated, and the absorption of glucose in the intestine is reduced. In order to avoid the appearance of neuropathy, osteoporosis as complications of diabetes mellitus, it is necessary to take this herbal remedy.
  • For diseases of a pulmonary nature, malaria, poisoning caused by the bites of poisonous insects and snakes, crushed with honey and water and infused in a weak solution of vinegar, the seeds of nigella sowing help. With the same infusion, you can get rid of helminths and other parasites that have penetrated the human body.
  • In the writings of the famous medical luminary of the Middle Ages, Avicenna, it is described how to use the plant to combat hanging warts, birthmarks, milk pimples, applying powder from the seeds of the plant to problem areas. Other skin conditions are treated similarly.
  • Infusion seed with the addition of honey, it helps to crush and remove stones from the kidneys and bladder.
  • A substance such as nigedaza in the composition of the seed nigella contributes to the restoration and normalization of the functions of the liver and stomach.
  • Taking an infusion of nigella semen for several months, you can improve the work of the heart, bring blood pressure back to normal. Plant-based preparations reduce blood cholesterol levels. A water broth prepared from the stem and leaves slows down the increased heart rate. It is also effective in restoring menstrual irregularities.
  • The main component of nigella semen - thymoquine inhibits the growth of cancerous tumors in the pancreas and prostate and helps better absorption of anticancer drugs.
  • Tibetan doctors treat childhood epilepsy and spinal cord injuries, symptoms of multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's disease with this anticonvulsant drug.
  • Hemorrhoid therapy is not complete without the use of seed gruel in petroleum jelly or baby cream topically, or the ingestion of one gram of seeds, previously fried.
  • To enhance milk secretion, nursing mothers need to take a quarter cup infusion of flower seeds before meals four times a day.
  • Inhalation of black cumin essential oils will save you from headaches, relieve unpleasant symptoms of inflammation of the trigeminal and facial nerves, and also help with a cold.
  • Black cumin seeds can be mixed with butter to make sandwiches. This will help relieve the headache symptom, and also protect against brain tumors.
  • Nigella sowing helps to normalize the functioning of the immune and endocrine systems of the human body, stimulates energy and metabolism at the cellular level.

Small black bitter seeds of kalindzha are indispensable in folk medicine, and as a spice they are especially popular among the peoples of India, Central Asia, Transcaucasia and Latin America.

Video - the refinement and beauty of the black seed.