As it turns out, caraway seeds are one of the best herbs for digestion — particularly for people with functional dyspepsia. Caraway is a carminative, which means that it relieves gas, and the licorice-like compounds in it have a very mild anesthetic effect that’s soothing to a troubled stomach.

Magical Properties and Folklore

• Need to keep your stuff from being messed with? Bust out the caraway.
• In Germany, it was sprinkled on coffins to keep evil spirits away from the dead.
• By a similar token, it is believed that anything that contains caraway can’t be stolen — putting a pinch of it in a wallet, purse, or car helps deter thieves.
• Placing a dish of it under a child’s crib was said to keep witches away.
• Sometimes, the seeds were even mixed into animal feed to keep chickens and sheep from wandering away!
• Caraway is often used as a love herb. Chewing some of the seeds before kissing someone is believed to entice them to fall in love with you.
• Hiding caraway in your lover’s food is also believed to keep them faithful to you.
• Bathing in an infusion of caraway removes the spiritual causes of disease.

If you don’t often use caraway in magic or cooking, I suggest keeping some on hand. Medicinally, it has a whole list of benefits ranging from improved digestion, to better circulation, to pain relief, and relatively few side effects. Magically, it is a very versatile herb for helping you keep all of the things you hold dear.

_{Sourced from https://marblecrowblog.com/2019/04/19/magical-caraway/}

WHAT IS CARAWAY?

Caraway, Carum carvi, is a member of the Apiaceae, or Umbelliferae family that includes celery, carrot, parsnips, fennel, parsley, and other fragrant flowering plants. It is a biennial herb best known for aromatic fruit that is called a seed, and used as a spice.
Its flavor is distinctly pungent, with anise and licorice undertones, and has become synonymous with classic rye bread. And while its fruit is the main attraction, the similarly fragrant leaves as well as the roots are also edible.

CULTIVATION AND HISTORY

C. carvi grows in USDA Hardiness Zones 4 to 10. In temperate regions within these zones, those that experience four seasons, it is a biennial that is sown in early spring.
In the first year, it produces roots and foliage, and dies to the ground at season’s end.
In the second, the foliage becomes bushy, tops out at two feet or more, and produces an “umbel” (think umbrella) arrangement of tiny pink or white florets that make up a flat-topped flower head. At season’s end, the florets wither, giving way to the fruit we refer to as seed.
If it is not harvested, the seed falls and remains dormant until it germinates the following spring. This is called “self-sowing.”
In warmer regions, you may raise C. carvi as an annual. When planted in late fall, it flowers and sets fruit the following spring.

Also known as meridian fennel and Persian cumin, the use of caraway in culinary and medicinal applications dates to ancient times in Africa, Asia, and Europe. It was a staple crop in Biblical times, and there are references to its cultivation and threshing in the Bible.
It has long been appreciated as a digestive aid and a crucial component of magical love potions.

_{Sourced from https://gardenerspath.com/plants/herbs/grow-caraway/}

Medicinal Action and Uses

—Constituents—

• The seeds contain from 4 to 7 per cent of volatile oil, according to the variety of Caraway fruit from which obtained that distilled from home-grown fruits being considered the best.
• Caraway grown in more northerly latitudes is richer in essential oil than that grown in southern regions, and if grown in full sun a greater percentage and a richer oil is obtained.
• The oil is distilled chiefly from Dutch, Norwegian and Russian fruits. The Dutch are small and dark brown in colour. English fruits, of which only a small quantity is produced, are of a brighter tint.
• The chief constituent of the oil is a hydrocarbon termed Carvene, also found in oils of Dill and Cumin, and an oxygenated oil Carvol, a mobile liquid (isomeric with the menthol of Spearmint).
• From 6 lb. of the unbruised seeds, 4 oz. of the pure essential oil can be expressed.
• The exhausted seed, after the distillation of the oil, contains a high percentage of protein and fat, and is used as a cattle food.

—Medicinal Action and Uses—

• Both fruit and oil possess aromatic, stimulant and carminative properties. Caraway was widely employed at one time as a carminative cordial, and was recommended in dyspepsia and symptoms attending hysteria and other disorders.
• It possesses some tonic property and forms a pleasant stomachic.
• Its former extensive employment in medicine has much decreased in recent years, and the oil and fruit are now principally employed as adjuncts to other medicines as corrective or flavouring agents, combined with purgatives.
• For flatulent indigestion, however, from 1 to 4 drops of the essential oil of Caraway given on a lump of sugar, or in a teaspoonful of water, will be found efficacious.
• Distilled Caraway water is considered a useful remedy in the flatulent colic of infants, and is an excellent vehicle for children’s medicine. When sweetened, its flavour is agreeable.
• One ounce of the bruised seeds infused for 6 hours in a pint of cold water makes a good Caraway julep for infants, from 1 to 3 teaspoonsful being given for a dose.
• The bruised seeds, pounded with the crumb of a hot new loaf and a little spirit to moisten, was an old-fashioned remedy for bad earache.
• The powder of the seeds, made into a poultice, will also take away bruises.

_{Sourced from https://botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/c/carawa20.html#med}