Fenugreek

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

Fenugreek (lat. Trigonella) - a genus of herbaceous plants, among which there are annuals and perennials. The genus Fenugreek belongs to the remarkable family of Legumes (lat. Fabaceae). Among almost a hundred species of plants of the genus, there are many species useful for humans that have healing abilities. The plants are very simple in appearance, displaying trifoliate leaves, moth-type flowers and a pod fruit. In Ancient Egypt, Rome and Ancient Greece, hay fenugreek was grown for livestock feed, but was later supplanted by other cereals. Recently, people have again turned their attention to certain species of the genus, remembering old and discovering new medicinal abilities of their leaves and fruits. Plant seeds are used in cooking.

What's in your name

The Latin name of the genus "Trigonella" is based on the word "Trigon", meaning "triangle". The reason for this name, most likely, was the trifoliate leaves of plants of the genus, which all together form a triangle.

Description

The underground part of the plants is represented by a thin long root, from which shorter roots, covered with adventitious roots, extend in all directions. Such a root allows the plant to collect nutrients from a relatively large area of soil, because annual plants need good nutrition in order to have time to go through a full growing cycle in one warm season. And for perennial plants, such a root is good.

The vertical or ascending stem of plants is relatively small in height, ranging from twenty to sixty centimeters, depending on the type of plant and environmental conditions.

The stem is covered with short-petiolized leaves arranged in three pieces on one petiole. Such leaves are called "trifoliate" by botany. The shape of the leaves is lanceolate obovate. Pointed stipules, finely pubescent.

From the axils of the leaves, racemose or umbellate inflorescences, or single or paired miniature moth-type flowers, are born. The corolla of the flower is protected by a tubular calyx made of green sepals. Corolla petals in different species can be colored white, blue, yellow, purple.

The crown of the growing season is the bean pod, which can be straight or curved, usually with a long spout. Inside the pod are irregularly shaped beans in an amount of three to twenty pieces.

Usage

There were times when people successfully used certain plant species of the genus as feed for livestock. Wild animals also eagerly ate fenugreek.

As a cultivated plant, Fenugreek was known on the Asian and African continents, and only later does it appear in Europe and America.

It so happened that later Fenugreek was forgotten, and today, when Mankind is haunted by diseases such as diabetes mellitus and cancer, the healing plants of the genus Fenugreek, the fruits of which were once worth their weight in gold, began to be remembered again. Doctors and pharmacists conduct laboratory studies of the fruits of hay fenugreek (lat. Trigonella foenum-graecum), rediscovering its unique healing abilities.

And the Bedouins of the Egyptian deserts have long been using the seeds of Fenugreek, which they call differently, "Helba". For tourists who love extreme types of recreation, cutting through the sandy expanses on ATVs, the Bedouin service offers to taste "yellow tea" made from Helba seeds. This tea heals the problems of the digestive system, increases appetite, manages to lower blood sugar levels, and also to lower the off-scale pressure.

Helba is also used in the preparation of various dishes, flavoring cheese, adding it as a spice to meat dishes, soups, various smoked meats and pastries.