Fenugreek is a native to India and southern Europe. For centuries it has grown wild in India, the Mediterranean and North Africa. where it is mainly cultivated. A limited crop grows in France. It was used by the ancient Egyptians to combat fever and grown in classical times as cattle fodder. Commercially, it is used in the preparation of mango chutneys and as a base for imitation maple syrup. In India it is used medicinally, and as a yellow dyestuff. It is also an oriental cattle fodder and is planted as a soil renovator. In the West, fenugreek’s therapeutic use is now largely confined to the treatment of animals, though historically. it has been used in human medicine. The name derives from the Latin ‘Greek hay” illustrating its classical use as fodder.

Spice Description
Fenugreek is the small stony seeds from the pod of a bean-like plant. The seeds are hard, yellowish brown and angular. Some are oblong, some rhombic, other virtually cubic, with a side of about 3mm (1/8”). A deep furrow all but splits them in two. They are available whole and dried , or as a dull yellow powder, ground from the roasted seeds.
Bouquet: Warm and penetrating, becoming more pronounced when the seeds are roasted. Ground, they give off a ‘spicy’ smell, pungent, like an inferior curry powder which would probably contain too much fenugreek.
Flavour: Powerful, aromatic and bittersweet, like burnt sugar. There is a bitter aftertaste, similar to celery or lovage.
Hotness Scale: 2

Preparation and Storage
Dried seeds should be lightly roasted before using (don’t overdo it though, or they will become bitter). After roasting, they are easily ground. A small amount will complement many other spices, but too much can be overpowering. If the seeds are required as part of a curry paste they can be soaked overnight to swell and soften, and be easily mixed with the other ingredients.

Culinary Uses
The major use of fenugreek is in curry powders, figuring in many mixtures, especially vindaloo and the hot curries of Sri Lanka. It is an ingredient of Panch phoron, the Indian five-spice mixture. In home-made powders, the amount used can be controlled, but in cheap bought powders it often overpowers. When fish is curried, particularly strong-tasting fish such as tuna and mackerel, fenugreek is frequently included in the spice mixture. Many chutneys and pickles incorporate it and it gives a tangy aroma to vegetables. The leaves, both fresh and dried, are used in meat curries, dhal and vegetable dishes and chutneys. The seeds are an ingredient of the Middle Eastern confection halva. Flour mixed with ground fenugreek makes a spicy bread. In India the roasted ground seeds are infused for a coffee substitute or adulterant. A tea can be made by infusing teaspoon of seed with two cups of water for five minutes.

Attributed Medicinal Properties
Fenugreek is a digestive aid. As an emollient it is used in poultices for boils, cysts and other complaints. Reducing the sugar level of the blood, it is used in diabetes in conjunction with insulin. It also lowers blood pressure. In the East, beverages are made from the seed to ease stomach trouble. The chemical make-up is curiously similar to cod liver oil, for which a decoction of the seed is sometimes used as a substitute. Many other properties are ascribed to it in India and the East and not surprisingly include aphrodisiac.

Plant Description and Cultivation
An erect hairy annual of the bean family, reaching 30-60 cm (1-2 ft.). The long slender stems bear tripartite, toothed, grey-green obovate leaves, 20-25 mm (3/4-1 in) long. The root is a mass of fingery structures. The sissile axillary flowers are white or pale yellow. The thin, sword-shaped pods are 10-15 cm (4-6 in), with a curved beak-like tip, each carrying 10-20 seeds. The plant radiates a spicy odour which persists on the hands after touching. Wild and cultivated varieties exist. Mild Mediterranean climates are most suitable. Plants mature in about four months. The whole plant is uprooted and allowed to dry. The seeds are threshed out and further dried.

Other Names
Bird’s Foot, Foenugreek, Goat’s Horn
French: fenugrec Sénegré, trigonelle
German: Bockshornklee, Griechisches Heu
Italian: fieno greco
Spanish: alholva, fenogreco
Indian: mayti, methe, methi
Tamil: venthium
Malay: alba
Sinhalese; uluhaal

Recipes using fenugreek
Try Vindaloo and Dhal.

Fenugreek is included in our Indian Spice Collection

Mothers who wish to build their milk supplies may consider using Fenugreek. Fenugreek is an herb that has long been used by healers as medicine, and as a galactogogue (to boost milk supply). Historically, fenugreek is an herb, trigonella foenum-graecum L, and is grown in various countries around the world including Argentina, France, India, and North Africa, and in the Mediterranean countries. The dried ripe seed of the plant is used, with one active ingredient being diosgenin. Fenugreek is used as a ground seed (high in fiber) in capsule form, or in tea, to increase milk production. The tea is weaker than the capsule form.

The dose is 2-3 capsules (580-610 mg each), taken by mouth 3 times/day. Taking a lesser dose may not increase supply. Results are often noticed in 1-3 days, although some mothers report no improvement. A bottle of 100 capsules can cost between $6-8 US, and it is available in health food stores and natural food stores. There is no reliable clinical research that supports the use of this herb, although many practitioners do use it with breastfeeding mothers with good success. Fenugreek is used in artificial maple flavorings, and also has a food product. If used to build milk supply, Fenugreek can generally be discontinued after milk supply is increased, as long as a mother can regularly breastfeed or pump.

The use of Fenugreek may cause a maple-syrup odor in a mother or baby’s sweat. It can have effects such as lowering blood sugar, and may cause allergy in some sensitive people with a history of asthma. Diabetic or asthmatic or allergic mothers should consult health care providers before using Fenugreek. Use of this herb may cause diarrhea. The FDA generally regards fenugreek as safe, but should not be used by pregnant mothers.

Tips:

• Use brand name herbal preparations with expiration dates and capsule strength printed on the label.
  
• Consult your doctor and lactation consultant (BNN) if you have milk supply issues. Herbs will not solve all milk supply problems.
  
• Check with your doctor before taking any herbal remedy, especially if you have other health concerns.
• Consult your doctor if you notice side effects of herbal remedies.
  
• Check the label, making sure that no other substances are combined with the chosen herb.
  
• Watch for diarrhea, aggravation in asthmatic or diabetic conditions.
  
• Do not exceed recommended dose, as serious side effects may occur.
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• http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/f/fenugr07.html

Fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum LINN.) Click on graphic for larger image

Fenugreek

Botanical: Foenum-graecum (LINN.)
Family: N.O. Leguminosae

• Description
• Constituents
• Medicinal Action
• Other Species

---Synonyms---Bird's Foot. Greek Hay-seed.
---Part Used---Seeds.
---Habitat---Indigenous to the countries on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean. Cultivated in India, Africa, Egypt, Morocco, and occasionally in England.

---

---Description---The name comes from Foenum-graecum, meaning Greek Hay, the plant being used to scent inferior hay. The name of the genus, Trigonella, is derived from the old Greek name, denoting 'three-angled,' from the form of its corolla. The seeds of Fenugreek have been used medicinally all through the ages and were held in high repute among the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans for medicinal and culinary purposes.

Fenugreek is an erect annual herb, growing about 2 feet high, similar in habit to Lucerne. The seeds are brownish, about 1/8 inch long, oblong, rhomboidal, with a deep furrow dividing them into two unequal lobes. They are contained, ten to twenty together, in long, narrow, sickle-like pods.

Taste, bitter and peculiar, not unlike lovage or celery. Odour, similar.

---Constituents---About 28 per cent mucilage; 5 per cent of a stronger-smelling, bitter fixed oil, which can be extracted by ether; 22 per cent proteids; a volatile oil; two alkaloids, Trigonelline and Choline, and a yellow colouring substance. The chemical composition resembles that of cod-liver oil, as it is rich in phosphates, lecithin and nucleoalbumin, containing also considerable quantities of iron in an organic form, which can be readily absorbed. Reutter has noted the presence of trimethylamine, neurin and betain; like the alkaloids in cod-liver oil, these substances stimulate the appetite by their action on the nervous system, or produce a diuretic or ureo-poietic effect.

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---Medicinal Action and Uses---In Cairo it is used under the name of Helba. This is an Egyptian preparation, made by soaking the seeds in water till they swell into a thick paste. Said to be equal to quinine in preventing fevers; is comforting to the stomach and has been utilized for diabetes. The seeds are soaked in water, then allowed to sprout, and when grown about 2 or 3 inches high, the green eaten raw with the seeds.

The seeds yield the whole of their odour and taste to alcohol and are employed in the preparation of emollient cataplasms, ointments and plasters.

They give a strong mucilage, which is emollient and a decoction of 1 OZ. seeds to 1 pint water is used internally in inflamed conditions of the stomach and intestines. Externally it is used as a poultice for abscesses, boils, carbuncles, etc. It can be employed as a substitute for cod-liver oil in scrofula, rickets, anaemia, debility following infectious diseases. For neurasthenia, gout and diabetes it can be combined with insulin. It possesses the advantage of being cheap and readily taken by children, if its bitter taste is disguised: 1 or 2 teaspoonful of the powder is taken daily in jam, etc.

The ground seeds are used also to give a maple-flavouring to confectionery and nearly all cattle like the flavour of Fenugreek in their forage. The powder is also employed as a spice in curry. At the present day, the ground seeds are utilized to an enormous extent in the manufactures of condition powders for horses and cattle; Funugreek is the principal ingredient in most of the quack nostrums which find so much favour among grooms and horsekeepers. It has a powerful odour of coumarin and is largely used for flavouring cattle foods and to make damaged hay palatable.

In India the fresh plant is employed as an esculent.

---Other Species---
Trigonella purpurascens, a British species,with small pinky-white flowers, one to three together, and straight, six- to eight-seeded pods, twice as long as the calyx.

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http://www.foodreference.com/html/artfenugreek.html (great alphabetical link to food references)

www.breastfeedingonline.com/fenugreek.shtml

 

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