Fenugreek(Methi)

An aromatic annual, slightly branched herb grown as a forage crop and for medicinal purposes. Leaves are trifoliate. Flowers are yellowish-white in the axil of leaves. Fruit is a cylindrical pod with long persistent beak with 10-20 seeds. Seeds are greenish brown with a deep furrow. Flowering and fruiting in November to March.

Part used: Leaf and Seed

Usage : Leaves are used both externally and internally for their cooling properties and eaten as vegetables. Leaves paste is applied for swellings and bums. Seeds are considered tonic, antipyretic, mucilaginous,
carminative and anthelmintic. Poultice of seeds is applied on swollen rheumatic joints and boils to get relief. Seed powder is also taken to control the diabetes and in the treatment of diarrhoea, abdominal pain and flatulence.
“Seeds cooked as vegetable and given to the patients of small pox and dysentery. Seed powder mixed with sugar and other ingredients to make sweet ‘laddus’ for the lactating mother and patients suffering from gout. This is also beneficial in general debility and chronic fever.

Agrotechniques : The seed is either broadcast or sown in rows about 15 to 30 cm apart in July-August. One light irrigation immediately after sowing and thereafter mostly rainfed; weeding essential. Leaves are continuously cut and used fresh and also dried in shade. Seeds collected when pods are mature and dried in the sun light.