Cumin is the dried, white fruit with greyish brown colour of a small slender annual herb. The surface of the fruit has 5 primary ridges, alternatively has 4 less distinct secondary ridges bearing numerous short hairs. The plant is 15 to 50 cm high. The aromatic seed like fruit is elongated, ovoid, 3 to 6 mm long, slightly bitter and has a warm flavour. The flowers are white or rose coloured in small umbels.
Cumin seed have an aromatic odour and bitter taste. It is used as a condiment, and is an ingredient in curry powders, seasonings of breads, cakes and cheese. It is employed in native dishes of Central and South America. In medicine, it is used as a stimulant, carminative, stomachic and astringent. Cumin seed oil is used in perfumery and for flavouring liqueurs and cordials.
Garlic is a hardy, bulbous, rooted, perennial plant with narrow flat leaves and bears small white flowers and bulbils. The compound bulb consists of 6 to 34 bulblets called 'cloves' which are surrounded by a common, thin, white or pinkish papery sheet. Garlic has a strong flavour and taste.
Garlic is used for flavouring various dishes practically all over the world.In India and other Asian and Middle East Countries, garlic is used in pickles, curry powders, curried vegetables, meat preparations etc. Oil of garlic is used as a flavouring agent in soups, canned foods, sauces etc.In the area of medicine, it is used for various ailments of stomach, skin diseases. It has wider applications in indigenous medicines and is also considered as highly nutritive.
Garlic is cultivated in India in the states of Poona, Nasik, Madurai and Jamnagar.
Ginger of commerce is the dried underground stem of the herbaceous tropical plant grown as an annual. The whole plant is refreshingly aromatic and the underground rhizome, raw or processed, is valued as spice. Ginger is a slender perennial herb, 30-50 cm tall with palmately branched rhizome bearing leafy shoots. The leafy shoot is a pseudostem formed by leaf sheath and bears 8 to 12 distichous leaves. The inflorescence is a spike springs directly from the rhizome.
Fresh ginger, dry ginger powder, oleoresin and oil are used in food processing. In medicine, it is used as carminative and stimulant. It has wider applications in indigenous medicines. The ginger oil is used as food flavourant in soft drinks.
Chilly is the universal spice of India. It is cultivated in all the States and Union Territories of the country. The important States growing chilli are Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Karnataka, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu. Andhra Pradesh alone commands 46% of the chilli production in India.As per the latest statistics, India produced 8,00,100tonnes of dry chilli from an area of 9,30,000 hectare. No country in the world has so much area and production of chilli as in India.
Chilli is nature's wonder. Its fruit appears in different sizes, shapes and colour. The fruit size of some varieties is more than hundred times that of others. The shape may be elongated or round and distal pointed, blunt or sucked in. Corrugated, leathery or smooth maybe the touch on outer skin. It may look like a bird's eye or a small orange fruit. Colour varies from blue, green, orange, red, yellow, violet, cream white to near black.
Chilli has two important commercial qualities. If some varieties are famous for red colour because of the pigment capsanthin, others are known for biting pungency attributed by capsaicin. India is the only country rich in many varieties with different quality factors.