Hello Mamta. I've heard a lot of good things about ajwain/carom tea, but how is it made?

Is it a simple case of steeping ajwain seeds in boiling water? And if so how much seed to water? And is there any limit on how many cups one should drink in a day?

Ajwain/carom water is often used for indegestion, both for adults and for baby's with 'wind' problems. And that is made by steeping carom in boiled water overnight. Same is made from fennel seeds, also good for indigestion. It makes nice tea too. Hope this helps?

Mamta

So you leave it over night in hot water (that obviously goes cold) then if you want to make tea you use this water in your normal tea ?

Steve

I have had and made fennel tea, but carom water is usually drunk as it is, as far as I can remember. I can'rt remember the last time I had carom tea. I will wait to hear what John thinks of it.

Carom seeds are sometimes used in special sweets called 'panjeeri', that are made for postnatal women. This is from my fading memory, so could be wrong ;-)!

Mamta

Yes, we also boil ajwain in water and drink it for gas / indigestion problems. Though fennel seeds may go with tea but ajwain ? I think is too different a taste for tea --- is my feeling.

Carom/ajwain seeds contain a flavour compound called thymol, and as its name suggests, also occurs in the (unrelated) herb, Thyme. It has antiseptic properties, and is in the pink solution that Dentists use as a mouth swill. It may help with upset stomachs called by ?organisms.

The flavour thymol,is chemically related to menthol, found in mint.

Lapis, I knew about the thymol and the reason why I asked if one should limit the amount they drink is because large doses of thymol is poisonous, is it not? I don't know what could be considered a large dose.

from what I can see from Google, the LD50 (dose to kill 50% of test animals) for rats is about 1g/kg of body weight. If this was the toxicity for humans (which it isn't, man is not a big rat!) then a heavy human of say 100kg mass would have to injest 100g (say 4 oz.) of thymol to get very sick indeed.

Carom seeds (ajwain) contain about 2% thymol, so for our 100kg person, that equates to 5kg of seeds, not really realistic, however much you might like it!

The same really goes for other flavour compounds, most of them are toxic in massive amounts, but in much smaller doses, may well be beneficial to our health.

I just remembered; there is a mouth freshener cum digestive aid made from carom seeds. I think it is called ajwain pachak or something similar. I am not sure exactly how it is made, but what it is, is the seeds soaked in lemon juice, with added black rock salt (kala namak) and a few other things, probably a minute amount of asafoetida as well. You just put about ? tsp. in your mouth and chew/suck them.

Mamta

Thanks Mamta and Lapis.

I soaked some ajwain seeds in boiling water last night and tried it this morning for breakfast. It's really nice and refreshing.

the mouthwash product 'Listerine' contains eucalyptol (green cardamom), menthol (mint) and thymol!