Legend has it that tucking a caraway seed with any valuable object will help prevent it from being stolen from you. Another belief is that the plant helps keep lovers from losing interest in each other. These are interesting superstitions, but if you want to take full advantage of caraway’s properties here’s a great idea: Use caraway oil. Read on to learn more about this essential oil’s uses and benefits.
What Is Caraway Oil?
Caraway essential oil comes from the seeds of the caraway plant or carum (Carum carvi or Apium carvi), a member of the Umbelliferae family, which also includes anise, dill, cumin, and fennel. It is a biennial herb that originated in Asia Minor but is now cultivated widely in Africa, Northern Europe, and Russia.
Caraway can be identified by its smooth, furrowed stems that grow 1 1/2 to 2 feet high, tender-soft, fern-like leaves and white or pink flowers that bloom in June. The fruits, which are actually called “seeds,” are curved and laterally compressed, with a horny and translucent appearance and marked with five distinct pale ridges. When bruised, they release a pleasant and aromatic odor. This is also the part of the plant that is traditionally added to food as a flavoring.
Caraway spice is popularly used in Europe and in the Indian subcontinent. Its use can be traced as far back as the Stone Age. The Egyptians added it to foods as a flavoring, while the Romans used it in bread making. It was also used by Germans and Austrians in culinary applications during the Middle Ages. Caraway oil is extracted from the seeds of the plant. It has a sweet, spicy odor with a slight peppery smell.
Uses of Caraway Oil
While caraway seeds are popularly used as a spice to flavor cheese, meat, bread, pickles, sauces, and other seasonings, the essential oil is used in manufacturing processes, such as adding flavor to certain medications and fragrance to soaps, toothpaste, and cosmetics.
Caraway oil also has many uses in aromatherapy and is greatly appreciated for its warming and stress-relieving properties. It helps alleviate mental strain and emotional fatigue. It also can benefit your digestion, as it can help settle your upset stomach and relieve colic, flatulence and gastric spasms.
Caraway oil also works as an expectorant, making it beneficial for respiratory health. It can provide relief for people with bronchial asthma, coughs, and bronchitis. Caraway oil promotes coughing and expels phlegm and other fluids from your respiratory tract. Promoting skin and hair health is another use for caraway oil, as it is an effective tissue regenerator. It can help fight oily skin, clear acne, heal bruises and boils and clean infected wounds. It also soothes itchy skin, as well as dandruff and other scalp problems.
Composition of Caraway Oil
Caraway oil’s beneficial and medicinal properties come from many components, namely carvone, furfural, cumuninic aldehyde, acetaldehyde, and limonene. The concentration of caraway oil’s components varies, depending on the ripeness of the fruit upon distillation.
For example, levels of carvone and other oxygenated compounds increase as the fruit ripens. Therefore, oils that come from mature and fully ripened seeds have more carvone and less limonene, resulting in a better quality oil.