Family: Leguminosae
Genus: Trigonella
Species: foenum-graecum
(i) General background on the plant
Fenugreek is a small to medium sized annual. It is a native of the Near East and has been cultivated since ancient times all over the Mediterranean and eastwards to India. It is now naturalised in much of this area. The plant is usually erect with little branched stems. Leaves are trifoliate with oblanceolate to oblong leaflets, with slightly toothed margins. Flowers are small, solitary or in twos, yellowish-white tinged with violet at the base and borne in the upper leaf axils. Pods are 6 - 8mm long, slender, pale brown, hairless and slightly curved with a 'beak'. Seeds are strongly scented, yellowish brown, angular, smooth skinned and with a deep furrow partly dividing them into unequal parts. All parts of the plant are strongly aromatic.
Fenugreek is widely used as a flavouring agent in Greece, the Balkans and throughout the Middle East. The meal is sometimes used in Europe as a spice in cattle food. When cultivated for fodder fenugreek is usually sown in mixed herbage and cut for hay, fresh fodder or silage. Young plants may be used in salad.
(ii) Details of quality characters
Fenugreek is cultivated for two distinct purposes - as a forage or fodder crop, and for its seeds which are used as a spice.
(iii) Current production and yields
For seed production, sowings are normally made in late March or early April: Seed yield may vary between 1.0 and 3 t/ha harvested in mid September.
(iv) Constraints on production
Crops grown for the spice are confined to the Mediterranean countries, especially Greece and Turkey. As a fodder crop it is cultivated in most of southern and central Europe, and to a small extent in northern Europe. It prefers the hotter climate such as found in the Mediterranean and further east.
(v) Markets and market potential
The protein and oil contents of the seed are of nutritional value, but the principle use is as a spice. The seed is also a source of diosgenin, a raw steroidal compound which is the most suitable starting material for the production of steroids (corticosteroids and contraceptives) and therefore of some importance in the pharmaceutical industry.
(vi) Other information
cv.Barbara, has been bred in the UK by PBI Cambridge.
Has not been successfully produced in Northern Europe.
(vii) Contacts
(viii) References
- Flora of the British Isles; Clapham, A. R.; Tutin, T. G. & Moore, D. M. (1987) 3rd Edition. Published Cambridge University Press
- Combinable alternative crops. Sells; J. E.; (1989) AFRC Institute of Engineering Research, Wrest Park, Silsoe, Bedford, MK45 4HS.