Carom Seeds

A few chemical constituents have been reported for the herb. Fiber (11.9%), carbohydrates (24.6%), tannins, glycosides, moisture (8.9%), protein (17.1%), fat (21.1%), saponins, flavones and other components (7.1%) involving calcium, phosphorous, iron, cobalt, copper, iodine, manganese, thiamine, riboflavin, and nicotinic acid are of reported phytochemical constituents of Carom seed. In the alcoholic extraction process, a large amount of saponin has been derived.

Like the most species of the family Apiaceae, Carom seed is famous for its brownish essential oil. Apparently, presence of an Ajowan essential oil is responsible for its odor and taste. Hence fruits of Carom seed accumulate up to 5% essential oil in its compartments. However, some investigation reported the yield of fruits essential oil up to 9% which may be

considerable. Usually, Thymol is the main Carom seed essential oil constituent and may be yielded from 35% to 60%. The non-thymol fraction (Thymene) contains Paracymene, Gamma-terpinene, Alpha-pinene, Beta-pinene, α-terpinene, Styrene, Delta-3-carene, Beta-phellandrene, terpinene-4-ol and Carvacrol. On the other hand, in an investigation, carvone (46.2%), limonene (38.1%) and dillapiole (8.9%) were introduced as principal oil constituents. Also oleic, linoleic, palmitic, petroselinic acid, resin acids are isolated from fruits of Carom seed. New glycosyl constituents such as 6-hydroxycarvacrol 2-O-β-D-Glucopyranoside and 3, 5-Dihydroxytoluene 3-O-β-D-Galactopyranoside are recently reported from fruits of Carom seed. Also, a steroid like substance and a compound namely 6-O-β- Glucopyranosyloxythymol has been isolated from the fruits.

Water-soluble extract of Carom seed fruit revealed to involve many compounds such as a new Monoterpenoid, 3, 7-Dimethyloct-3(10)-ene-1, 2, 6, 7-tetrol; new Mono-terpenoid Glucosides namely (2S, 6Z)-3, 7-Dimethyloct- 3(10)-ene-1, 2, 6, 7-Tetrol 1-O-β-D-Glucopyranoside and 6-Hydroxythymol 3-O-β-D-Glucopyranoside; new aromatic compound glucosides as 2-Methyl-3-Buten-2- ol-β-D-Glucopyanoside Benzyl-β-D-Glucopyranoside and Glucide namely (3R)-2-Hydroxymethylbutane- 1,2,3,4-tetrol. Other glucosides such as 1-Deoxy- L-Erythritol and 1-Deoxypentitol and nucleosides as adenosine and uridine were isolated from Carom seed fruits.

Carom seed was vastly applied by medieval practitioners, and it also exhibited different pharmacological effects regarding various chemical ingredients. Accordingly, current paper was aimed to review the clinical applications of the herb as well as most cited pharmacological properties in current medicine. To this, respective databases were searched for the terms “Trachyspermum ammi”, “Carum copticum”, “Carom seed” and “Ajowan” with-out limitation up to early 2013. Information on the herb was gathered via electronic search using PubMed, Scopus, Google scholar and SID (for articles in Persian language) as well as medical and pharmaceutical manuscripts of Persian medicine.