Product knowledge
What is hab el rashad?
Hab el rashad is the Arabic name for garden cress seed (also called peppergrass), a small, peppery-tasting seed used across Middle Eastern and South Asian households, both as a food ingredient and, pressed, as a traditional oil. In English it's sometimes labeled cress seed or garden cress.
Levant Direct stocks it as Cress Seed Oil (Peppergrass / Hab Rashad) from El Captain of Cairo — a pressed oil rather than the whole seed, sold in our natural oils range.
It's a smaller, more specialist item within that range — not a name every buyer will recognize on sight — so this page exists mainly for the shopper who already knows the Arabic name and wants to confirm what format we actually stock it in.
The seed, and the oil we stock
Whole garden cress seed has a sharp, peppery bite and is used in some regional kitchens sprouted, ground into pastes, or added whole to dishes and drinks — a small seed with an outsized flavor. It's also long been pressed for its oil, which is the format El Captain produces and the one in our catalogue.
If a customer specifically wants the whole seed for cooking or sprouting rather than the pressed oil, note that our current listing under this name is the oil — worth confirming before assuming either format is a substitute for the other.
The plant itself, Lepidium sativum, is a fast-growing member of the same family as mustard and watercress, which explains the peppery, slightly mustard-like character both the seed and the pressed oil carry through from the raw plant.
Traditional use, described honestly
Cress seed oil is part of the same family of pressed seed and herb oils as black seed, sesame and the dozens of others El Captain produces — traditionally kept as part of a household's care and kitchen shelf rather than sold as a medicated product. We describe it in those terms: a traditional oil with a specific plant origin, not a product that treats or relieves anything. Some source literature for this category leans into stronger language than that; our own copy stays on the descriptive side of the line, which is the appropriate register for a natural oil sold as a cosmetic and food ingredient in Canada.
That framing carries through to how it should be marketed further down the chain — ingredient, origin, tradition, not a health outcome.
A retailer stocking this alongside better-known oils like black seed or sesame should apply the same standard consistently: descriptive language for the whole shelf, not a more cautious approach for the familiar items and a looser one for the specialty ones a customer is less likely to double-check.
Who stocks it
Cress seed oil sits alongside dozens of other single-origin oils in the same catalogue, and is typically ordered as part of a broader natural-oils selection rather than as a standalone item — see natural oils wholesale in Canada for how the wider range is organized and quoted.
Specialty grocers and personal-care retailers serving a Middle Eastern or South Asian customer base are the most likely buyers, since this is largely a name-recognition product — shoppers who already know it tend to ask for it by name rather than discover it browsing a general oils shelf.
Because volume for a specialist item like this tends to be modest compared with the catalogue's more familiar oils, a first order is usually sized as a trial case rather than a heavy commitment — worth saying so directly in your inquiry so the quotation reflects a realistic starting volume.
Related questions
Is hab el rashad the same as cress seed?
Yes — hab el rashad is the Arabic name for garden cress seed, also called peppergrass in English.
Do you sell the whole seed or the oil?
We stock the pressed oil — Cress Seed Oil from El Captain — rather than the whole seed. If whole cress seed for cooking is what you need, that's a different format than our current listing.
Is this oil marketed with health claims?
Our own descriptions stay traditional and descriptive rather than making health claims, regardless of how source brand literature elsewhere describes the product.
What plant does the oil come from?
Lepidium sativum, garden cress — a fast-growing plant in the same family as mustard and watercress, which explains the seed and oil's peppery character.