Be it adding flavour to your pickle or a distinct taste to your curry, methi or fenugreek seeds found in almost every Indian kitchen have diverse uses and many incredible health benefits.

* Methi seeds improve appetite and digestive power. They also support breast milk secretion.

* Methi seeds are effective in controlling diabetes and improving cholesterol and blood pressure.

* Methi seeds help reduce hair fall, grey hairs and uric acid levels (gout). They also help treat anaemia by increasing blood levels and detoxify blood.

* Methi seeds are useful in treating disorders of Vata such as neuralgia, paralysis, constipation, abdominal ache, bloating, pain in any part of the body from backache, knee joint ache to muscle cramps.

Green cardamom is one of the most expensive spices by weight but little is needed to impart flavour. The spice has a very warm aroma and pungent taste which it can retain for a very long time. So many Indian dishes and tea are incomplete without cardamon. 

The kalonji, or Nigella seeds, is an interesting spice – when used for tempering, it adds a beautiful aroma to the dishes, and a hint of flavour that you can’t quite nail. In India, dry roasted kalonji is used for flavouring curries, dal, stir-fried vegetables, and even savouries such as samosa, papdis and kachoriamong others. Flavour and aroma aside, the tiny black seed comes with a whole lot of health benefits. It’s loaded with trace elements, vitamins, crystalline nigellone, amino acids, saponin, crude fiber, proteins and fatty acids like linolenic and oleic acids, volatile oils, alkaloids, iron, sodium, potassium and calcium. It keeps your heart healthy, addresses breathing problem, lubricates your joints, and is known to have anti-carcinogenic properties.

Kasuri Methi refers to dried leaves of the fenugreek plant. It is an herb with a bitter but addictive taste. Used as a spice in Indian curries, sabzi, parathas its strong aroma and distinctive flavour fascinate the taste buds!

Poppy seed, tiny dried seed of the opium poppy, used as food, food flavouring, and the source of poppy-seed oil. Poppy seeds have no narcotic properties, because the fluid contained in the bud that becomes opium is present only before the seeds are fully formed.

Samo Seeds is also known as the following: barnyard millet, white millet, black millet, alkali millet, water grass, duck millet, Shirohie millet (Australia), Japanese barnyard millet, Jungle Rice, Moriyo, Samak Rice, Echinochloa frumentacea.

The Samo Seeds are popularly known as Bhagar in India are seeds of a grass namely Echinochloa Colonum that grows amongst the rice paddy as it requires damp and moisture laden soil. With digestible fibers‚ high nutritional content and excellent nourishment‚ Samo is immensely popular amongst the Indian majority. Prepared in different styles across various states‚ it forms a heavy and a filling real. In the west it is also known as Jungle rice.

Many cuisines use basil as an herb to flavor dishes. Not only does basil have a unique flavor but it also is a great source of nutrition. The seeds of basil plants are also edible. People in India and Southeast Asia often mix them in desserts and drinks, and basil seeds are becoming more commonly used in other parts of the world as well.

Turmeric is the traditional yellow colored root belonging to the family of ginger. Commonly used as herb and spice worldwide, its properties make it smell poignant and strong in flavor which is a little bitter, hot and earthy in taste. ... This golden spice is inborn to India and South East Asia.