Fenugreek is a native of South Eastern Europe and West Asia, now cultivated in India also. Fenugreek seed is the ripe fruit of an annual herb. It is used both as a food and food additive as well as in medicines. Fresh tender pods, leaves and shoots are eaten as curried vegetable. As a spice, it flavours food. Powder of dried leaves is also used for garnishing and flavouring variety of food. The seeds are used in colic flatulence, dysentery, diarrhoea, dyspepsia, chronic cough and enlargement of liver and spleen, rickets, gout and diabetes.

In India it is grown extensively in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Punjab.