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Guizotia abyssinica

Common name:	Niger Seed	Family:	Compositae
Author:	(L.f.)Cass.	Botanical references:	17, 200
Synonyms:	Guizotia oleifera
Known Hazards:	None known
Range:	Africa - Tropics. An infrequent casual in Britain.
Habitat:	Casual on tips and waste ground near oil mills, and as a bird-seed alien, in Britain.
Edibility Rating (1-5):	2	Medicinal Rating (1-5):	1

Other Possible Synonyms:	From various places across the web, may not be correct. See below.
	Polymnia abyssinica[G]
Other Common Names:	From various places around the Web, may not be correct. See below.
	Gingellikruid [D], Niger [L], Ramtilla [B,P],
Systematics:	From a USDA Plants Database
	Order: Asterales. Renamed to Asteraceae -- Aster family

Physical Characteristics

Annual growing to 1.8m. . It is in leaf from May to October, in flower from August to September, and the seeds ripen from September to October. The flowers are hermaphrodite (have both male and female organs) and are pollinated by Insects. The plant not is self-fertile. We rate it 2/5 for edibility and 1/5 for medicinal use.

The plant prefers light (sandy), medium (loamy) and heavy (clay) soils. The plant prefers acid, neutral and basic (alkaline) soils. It can grow in semi-shade (light woodland) or no shade. It requires moist soil.

Habitats and Possible Locations

Cultivated Beds.

Edible Uses

Condiment; Oil; Seed.

The seed is eaten fried, used as a condiment or dried then ground into a powder and mixed with flour etc to make sweet cakes[22, 46, 177, 183]. Average seed yields in India range from 100 - 200 kg/ha when grown with ragi, and 300 - 400 kg/ha when grown in pure stands[269]. In Kenya, monocultural yields average 600 kg/ha[269]. Seed yields of 1,000 to 1,200 kg/ha have been obtained on fertile Himalayan soils[269]. Oil yields range about 235 kg/ha[269].
The seeds yield about 30% of a clear, excellent, slow-drying edible oil[269]. It is used as a substitute for olive oil, can be mixed with linseed oil, and is used as an adulterant for rape oil, sesame oil etc[269]. The oil is used in cooking as a ghee substitute and can be used in salad dressings etc[183, 269]. A pleasant nutty taste[142].

Medicinal Uses

Disclaimer

Antirheumatic; Parasiticide; Poultice.

The oil from the seeds is used in the treatment of rheumatism[240, 243, 269]. It is also applied to treat burns[272].
A paste of the seeds is applied as a poultice in the treatment of scabies[272].

Other Uses

Green manure; Oil.

A drying oil is obtained from the seed[1, 2, 17, 46, 171]. It is used for burning, in making soap, paints etc[57, 132, 269].
The plant can be used as a green manure[61]. It is usually dug in when the plants are about to come into flower[269].

Cultivation details

An easily grown plant, it succeeds in any rich soil[1]. The plant is adapted to a wide range of soils, from sandy to heavy, growth being poor on light sandy or gravelly soils[269]. Niger is often cultivated on very poor acid soils, on hilly slopes, where fertility is low due to leaching and washing away of the plant nutrients by erosion[269]. Niger seed is reported to tolerate an annual precipitation of 66 to 179cm, an annual temperature range of 13.6 to 27.5°C and a pH in the range of 5.5 to 7.5[269].
Niger is often cultivated, especially in Africa, as an oil seed crop[2, 46, 51, 269], it has also been cultivated in Germany[61].
The flowers are very attractive to bees[269].
Several factors lend credence to fears that niger might become a pest if introduced into warm temperate areas - grazing animals do not relish it, the plant tolerates poor soil and drought, it has few serious pests or diseases especially outside its native range, the seeds store for a year or more without deterioration, and the seeds mature 3 - 4.5 months after planting[269]. Arguing against its weed potential are the facts that it is a short day plant and therefore does not flower or set seed until daylight hours average 13 hours or less, it is self-sterile, and requires bees for pollination[269].

Propagation

Seed - sow spring in situ and only just cover the seed. Make sure the soil does not dry out because this would delay germination. In warm weather, germination should take place within 3 - 4 days of sowing the seed. When sowing larger areas, the seed may be broadcast at rate of 10 kg/ha or sown in rows 40 to 50 cm apart at rate of 5 kg/ha[269].

Suppliers

For more details of plant suppliers please see our Suppliers Page which lists many more places to look.

Web References

[E] Ethnobotany Data (common names, uses, countries) from the Ethnobotany Database.
[B] Data (Latin & Common names, other references) from the BONAP's Synonymized Checklist of the Vascular Flora of the United States, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.
[G] Data (Common Names, Uses, Distribution) from the USDA/ARS NPGS's GRIN taxonomic database.
[C] Taxon data. from the CalFlora database.
[P] Data. (uses, distribution, wetland) from the USDA'a Plants database.
[HEC] Use, Folk Medicine, etc. from Handbook of Energy Crops by James Duke
[HP] Links, Photos, Suppliers from Hortiplex Plant Database

See the PFAF Links Pages for other sources.

Also try Photos and info from the The Plants Database which has 14,000 images.

References

[1] F. Chittendon. RHS Dictionary of Plants plus Supplement. 1956 Oxford University Press 1951
Comprehensive listing of species and how to grow them. Somewhat outdated, it has been replaces in 1992 by a new dictionary (see [200]).

[2] Hedrick. U. P. Sturtevant's Edible Plants of the World. Dover Publications 1972 ISBN 0-486-20459-6
Lots of entries, quite a lot of information in most entries and references.

[17] Clapham, Tootin and Warburg. Flora of the British Isles. Cambridge University Press 1962
A very comprehensive flora, the standard reference book but it has no pictures.

[22] Sholto-Douglas. J. Alternative Foods.
Not very comprehensive, it seems more or less like a copy of earlier writings with little added.

[46] Uphof. J. C. Th. Dictionary of Economic Plants. Weinheim 1959
An excellent and very comprehensive guide but it only gives very short descriptions of the uses without any details of how to utilize the plants. Not for the casual reader.

[51] Polunin. O. and Stainton. A. Flowers of the Himalayas. Oxford Universtiy Press 1984
A very readable and good pocket guide (if you have a very large pocket!) to many of the wild plants in the Himalayas. Gives many examples of plant uses.

[57] Schery. R. W. Plants for Man.
Fairly readable but not very comprehensive. Deals with plants from around the world.

[61] Usher. G. A Dictionary of Plants Used by Man. Constable 1974 ISBN 0094579202
Forget the sexist title, this is one of the best books on the subject. Lists a very extensive range of useful plants from around the world with very brief details of the uses. Not for the casual reader.

[132] Bianchini. F., Corbetta. F. and Pistoia. M. Fruits of the Earth.
Lovely pictures, a very readable book.

[142] Brouk. B. Plants Consumed by Man. Academic Press 1975 ISBN 0-12-136450-x
Readable but not very comprehensive.

[171] Hill. A. F. Economic Botany. The Maple Press 1952
Not very comprehensive, but it is quite readable and goes into some a bit of detail about the plants it does cover.

[177] Kunkel. G. Plants for Human Consumption. Koeltz Scientific Books 1984 ISBN 3874292169
An excellent book for the dedicated. A comprehensive listing of latin names with a brief list of edible parts.

[183] Facciola. S. Cornucopia - A Source Book of Edible Plants. Kampong Publications 1990 ISBN 0-9628087-0-9
Excellent. Contains a very wide range of conventional and unconventional food plants (including tropical) and where they can be obtained (mainly N. American nurseries but also research institutes and a lot of other nurseries from around the world.

[200] Huxley. A. The New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. 1992. MacMillan Press 1992 ISBN 0-333-47494-5
Excellent and very comprehensive, though it contains a number of silly mistakes. Readable yet also very detailed.

[240] Chopra. R. N., Nayar. S. L. and Chopra. I. C. Glossary of Indian Medicinal Plants (Including the Supplement). Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, New Delhi. 1986
Very terse details of medicinal uses of plants with a wide range of references and details of research into the plants chemistry. Not for the casual reader.

[243] Medicinal Plants of Nepal Dept. of Medicinal Plants. Nepal. 1993
Terse details of the medicinal properties of Nepalese plants, including cultivated species and a few imported herbs.

[269] Duke. J. Handbook of Energy Crops - 1983
Published only on the Internet, excellent information on a wide range of plants.

Readers Comments

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Plant information taken from the Plants For A Future - Species Database. Copyright (c) 1997-2003.
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