Nigella sativa, çörek otu (black caraway, also known as black cumin, nigella or kalonji) is an annual flowering plant in the family Ranunculaceae, native to eastern Europe (Bulgaria, Cyprus and Romania) and western Asia (Turkey, Iran and Iraq), but naturalized over a much wider area, including parts of Europe, northern Africa and east to Myanmar.
Nigella sativa grows to 20–30 cm (7.9–11.8 in) tall, with finely divided, linear (but not thread-like) leaves. The flowers are delicate, and usually coloured pale blue and white, with five to ten petals. The fruit is a large and inflated capsule composed of three to seven united follicles, each containing numerous seeds which are used as spice, sometimes as a replacement for black cumin (Bunium bulbocastanum).
The genus name Nigella is a diminutive of the Latin niger 'black', referring to the seed color. The specific epithet sativa means 'cultivated'.
In English, N. sativa and its seed are variously called black caraway, black seed, black cumin, fennel flower, nigella, nutmeg flower, Roman coriander, and kalonji. Blackseed and black caraway may also refer to Bunium persicum.
N. sativa may have been used as a condiment of the Old World to flavour food. The Muslim Persian physician Avicenna in his Canon of Medicine described N. sativa as a treatment for dyspnea. N. sativa was used in the Middle East as a traditional medicine. The majority of the global commercial supply of N. sativa seed is obtained from cultivation in Egypt, Turkey, and India.
