Caraway

Caraway is best known as the seed that flavors rye bread.  The reason it's in rye bread, and many other foods, is that caraway has been used since ancient times to calm the digestive tract and expel gas.

Caraway seeds have ben found in prehistoric food remains from 3500 B.C.  The ancient Egyptians loved the aromatic seeds.  They were recommended for digestive upsets in the Ebers Papyrus, one of the world's oldest surviving medical documents, about 1500 B.C.

Caraway is one of only a handful of herbs whose major medicinal use has remained unchanged throughout history.  The ancient Greek physician Dioscorides mentioned the seeds to aid digestion, and herbals down through the ages have recommended them for indigestion, gas, and infant colic.

Modern researchers have discovered that two chemicals (carvol and carvene) in caraway seeds soothe the smooth muscle tissue of the digestive tract and help expel gas.

Antispasmodics, which appear to be present in caraway, soothe not only the digestive tract but other smooth muscles, such as the uterus, as well.  Thus caraway might relax the uterus, not stimulate it.  Women may try it for relief of menstrual cramps.