The New Nation - Internet Edition

Jamayet Ali

Methi is an aromatic cold season (Rabi) crop and is fairly tolerant to frost and very low temperature. It is indigenous to the countries bordering the eastern shores of the Mediterranean, extending to Central Asia; an independent centre of origin exists in Ethiopia. It has been cultivated as a condiment and a pot-herb in India and North African countries for centuries. The herb is grown also for fodder and for improving the soil in the Mediterranean countries, southern Russia, India, California and some other tropical countries. In ancient Greece and in Italy it was grown for the spring forage and for medicinal purposes.

Botanical name of Methi is Trigonella joenum-graecum Linn. Though it is not cultivated in our country, it is available in shops of towns and even in shops of hats and bazaars of rural Bangla. Methi is propagated by seeds. It is grown either pure or as a mixture with other crops. It has been employed in certain regions of Egypt, as an additive to maize flour in the preparation of bread. The main object of the addition is to obtain a cohesive mass. Methi is used as a condiment and for flavouring food preparations. It has a strong odour and an unctuous farinaceous taste with slight bitterness. It may be eaten raw or cooked. It has a constituent of curry powders. In Egypt, ground seeds are mixed with wheat-flour for making bread. In Switzerland, it is used for flavouring cheese. Roasted seeds are used as a substitute for coffee in some 'parts of Africa. In USA, seeds are used in the preparation of chutneys and in various spice blends. Methi extract is used as a flavouring ingredient of imitation maple syrup. Leaves, both fresh and dried, are eaten as a vegetable. Leaves are also used as fodder for cattle. In North Africa and also in some Mediterranean countries, the plant is grown for hay. The plant is a soil renovator and has been tried as a green manure crop in some parts of USA and also in Uzbekistan.

The analysis of a sample of seeds gave the following values: moisture, 13.7; crude protein, 26.2; fat, 5.8; fibre, 7.2; other carbohydrate, 44.1; and ash, 3.0 g IIOOg. The values for some of the mineral constituents of the seed are: calcium, 160.0; P, 370; Fe, 14.1 ; Na, 19.0; and K, 5.30 mg /100 g. The vitamins present in the seeds are: carotene, 96 fl.; thiamine, 0.34 ; riboflavin, 0.29; nicotinic acid, 1.1 mg 1100g. Germinating seeds contain pyridoxine, calcium and vitamin C. The seeds also contain 6·8 percent fatty oil with a foetid odour and bitter taste. The seed yields a yellow dye and enters into the composition of an imitation of carmine. The yellow decoction produces a fine permanent green with sulphate of copper ( The Wealth of India, Raw Materials)

Medicinal Properties: The seeds are hot, with a sharp bitter taste; tonic, antipyretic, anthelmintic; increase the appetite; astringent to the bowels; cure leprosy, "vata", vomiting bronchitis, piles; remove bad taste from the mouth; useful in heart disease (Ayurveda). The plant and seeds are hot and dry; suppurative, aperient, diuretic emmenagogue; useful in dropsy, chronic cough, enlargements of the spleen and liver The leaves are useful in external and internal swellings and burns; prevent the hair falling off. (Yunani)

Fenugreek seeds are considered carminative, tonic, and aphrodisiac. several confections made with this article are recommended for use in dyspepsia with loss of appetite, in the diarrhoea of puerperal women, and in rheumatism. An infusion of the seeds is given to small pox patients as a cooling drink. the seeds being toasted afterwards infused are used by Native practitioners in Southern India for dysentery. In the Konkan, the leaves are used both externally and internally on account of their cooling properties. The use of fenugreek as a medicinal agent is now obsolete in Europe and the United States. Formerly, the seeds were employed in the preparation of emollient cataplasms, fomentations and enemata, but were never given internally.

The powdered seeds are still used in veterinary practice. The seeds contain the alkaloid trigonelline ( Indian Medicinal Plants, K.R. Kirtikar & B.D. Basu, 700)

Medicine: Fenugreek is rich in medicinal values. Sanskrit writers describe the seeds as carminative, tonic and aphrodisiac. Several confections made with them are recommended for use in dyspepsia with loss of appetite in the diarrhoea of puerperal women and in rheumatism (U.C.Dutt).

Muhammadan writers describe the plant and seeds as hot and dry, suppurative, aperient, diuretic, emmenagogue, useful in dropsy, chronic cough and enlargement of the spleen and liver. A poultice of the leaves is said to be of use in external and internal swellings and burns, and to prevent the hair falling off. The flour of the seeds is used as poultice, and is applied to the skin as a cosmetic. The oil of the seeds is also used for various purposes (Dymock). The seeds are aromatic, carminative, tonic and galactagogue. They are used externally in poultices for boils, abscesses and ulcers and internally as emollient for inflammations of the internal tract. they find application also in veterinary medicine, and are used in poultices, ointments and plasters and form a constituent of 'condition powders' for cattle, horses and sheep. Seeds are used to render musky hay and compressed fodder palatable. The aqueous extract of the seeds show antibiotic activity against micrococcus pyogenes var. aureus (Chopra, Nayar & Chopra, 248)

Ainslie informs us that the seeds are much prescribed by native practitioners in dysenteric complaints, being commonly toasted and given in infusion. In the Punjab the seeds are used in fomentation, and are prescribed for colic, flatulence and dysentery (Stewart).

Made into a gruel they are given as a diet to nurses to increase the flow of milk. In Western India the leaves are employed both externally and internally on account of their cooling properties.

Dymock states that they have an aperient action in "bilious states of the system" In European medicine, Methi at one time enjoyed as high a reputation as it now holds in Hindu and Mohamrnadan Materia Medica. Its mucilaginous seeds, "silique" of the Roman peasants, were valued as a food and supposed to possess many medicinal virtues.

Though officinal in most of the Pharmacopaeias of the eighteenth century. Methi is now obsolete, as a medicine in Europe.

Special Opinions: "The seeds made into a gruel are used as a stimulant and tonic." (Surgeon-Major A.S.G. Jayakar, Muskat). "Boiled well with milk it is given internally in bleeding piles. The leaves fried with ghee are used in dysentery" (Surgeon-Major D.R. Thomson, M.D., CIE. Madras). The leaves applied as a poultice are much used in cases of confusion" (Hospital Assistant Lal Mahomed, Hashangabad, Central Provinces.) (Dictionary of the Economic Products of India)