Standardized Common Name: Caraway

Family: Apiaceae (Umbelliferae)

Taxonomy: Carum includes about 30 species. Carum carvi is among five species native to Europe. It has been widely distributed through cultivation; for example, it is naturalized in North America.

Description: Biennial or annual herb. Stem erect, to 80(–150) cm high, branching. Leaves basal and alternate, with sheathing petioles; basal leaves to 20 cm long, 2–3-pinnately compound, overall shape oblong or narrowly deltoid; the stem leaves smaller, with pinnately compound stipules; lobes 3–12(–25) mm long, linear or ovate and pinnatifid; apices acute, cartilaginous. Inflorescences compound umbels, several per plant; peduncles often borne opposite stem leaves; umbels bractless or subtended by few linear or pinnatifid bracts; umbelets usually without bracteoles; main rays 5–16, 2–40 mm long, conspicuously unequal in length within each umbel, spreading in fruit; flowers tiny, usually white, occasionally pink or red, 5-petaled. Fruit a schizocarp of 2 mericarps, (2–)3–4(–7) mm long, ellipsoid to oblong-ovoid, laterally compressed, connected by narrow commissure, glabrous.

Parts in Commerce: Fruits

Identification: See appendix for explanation of the technical terms pertaining to umbel fruits.

• Mericarps usually separated, or attached to carpophore only at apex; commissure constricted
• Mericarps 3–7 mm long, 1.5–2 mm broad
• Oblong-ovoid and curving, with convex dorsal surface and concave commissural surface, somewhat banana-shaped
• Apex narrowed; calyx below stylopodium reduced to minuscule bumps or altogether absent, lacking conspicuous teeth
• Ribs 5, threadlike, yellowish to yellowish-brown; vallecular channels between ribs darker brown
• 1 vitta in each vallecula on dorsal side, 2 vittae on commissural face; vittae visible externally as dark longitudinal raised line down middle of each vallecula, often undulating
• Surface glabrous, without hairs or scales
• In cross-section of dried fruit, endosperm bluntly star-shaped (nearly rectangular in fresh or soaked fruit); vittae visible as dark spots in mericarp wall
• Odor aromatic
• Taste aromatic, pleasant, characteristic

Adulterants: Historical substitutes for C. carvi in commerce include Cuminum cyminum L. (Cumin) and Aegopodium podagrarium L. (Ash Weed, Goutweed), although confusion of cultivated material today is unlikely. Both of these are also sold in their own right for culinary and medicinal purposes, especially the former. The fruits of all three are sometimes of similar size, shape and coloring(although that of Aegopodium typically ranges from dark brown to nearly black). Several features, summarized in the table below, differentiate them; of these, odor and flavor are the simplest for those who are familiar with the material.