SPICE-PRODUCING PLANTS.
It is somewhat difficult to separate spices from other aromatic flavoring agents, such as anise seed and bay leaves. As a rule, however, spices have a sharp, pungent taste modified by other Savors characteristic of each sort. Most of them are used in a ground state, owing to the necessity of using them in small quantities because of the intensity of the taste-sensations which they im part. Many aromatic products are much milder and can be used in a whole state without the develop ment of too powerful sensations. These more powerful flavoring agents, by common usage known as spices, are here briefly discussed.
Botanical sources.
The common spices arc derived from almost as many botanical families as there are spices, and nearly all products here concerned are of tropical origin. The Banana family (Scitaminacar) includes a series of perennial, herbaceous, rather succulent plants, having strong flavoring properties distrib uted more or less widely throughout the plant, as ginger, turmeric (Curcuma) and cardamons. The Nutmeg family (Myristicarea) furnishes nutmegs and mace, products derived from the fruit of the nutmeg tree. The Myrtle family (Myrtacers) sup plies two of our most important spices,—cloves and allspice or pimento. The Laurel family (Lauracea') yields cinnamon bark and cassia buds, products of a number of species of the genus Cinnamomum. Black and white pepper are derived from the same plant, Piper nigrum, a member of the Pepper family (F'iperaeor). Red pepper is not a member of the Pepper family, belonging, rather, to the Potato family (Solanaccee). [See under Medicinal, Condimental and Aromatic Plants.] Mustard is fur nished by members of the Mustard family (Crueif erm), the black mustard being produced, supposedly, by Brassica nigra, and the white mustard by B. alba.
Parts used, and method of preparation.
The parts of the plants used in making spices seem to be determined by three points : (1) The part must contain the pungent or aromatic prin ciple in large quantity. (2) It must be accom panied by other tastes giving a pleasant combina tion, or it must at least lack unpleasant constitu ents. (3) The texture of the product must not be too hard, tough or woody for proper grinding and use. Consequently, in general, spices consist of the tenderer parts of the plants, such as the inner bark, seeds capable of ready grinding, buds, rhizomes and fruits.
Among the spices above mentioned, ginger and its near relative, turmeric, are made from the younger, tender parts of the rhizome. Cinnamon consists of the carefully cleaned and dried inner bark of the smaller branches of the tree. Cloves consists of the unopened flower-buds picked and carefully dried. Cassia buds represent immature fruits enclosed in the calyx of the flower. Allspice consists of the full-sized but im mature fruit picked from the pimento tree while still rich in the pungent principles. These in part disappear on ripening.
Black pepper consists of the small round fruits of the pepper vine, plucked when the color has changed from green to red. These hardly ripe berries are more pungent than when fully ripe.
White pepper is prepared from this fruit after it has ripened. The berries are soaked in water and the dark pulpy cov ering bruised off. The remaining part is less aromatic and pungent than the black pepper. Red pepper is obtained by grinding the dry ripe fruit.
Mustard consists of the ground ma ture seeds, usually of the white sort.
Nutmegs are the hard inner kernel of the fruit of the nutmeg tree. The entire fruit, having the size of a small apple, consists of three parts: an outer, fleshy, pulpy covering, beneath which is found the mace, occurring as a partial covering over the kernel or nutmeg proper. All parts are aromatic, but the mace and kernel are especially so.
Geographical sources.
With the exception of a small part of the red pepper and of the mustard, these spices are all imported products.
Red peppers and mustard grown in the United States are to a small extent articles of commerce as spices, the former being grown especially in South Carolina, Louisiana and California, the latter in California. Black and white pepper together form an important agricultural interest in India, Malay peninsula, Ceylon and other points of tropical eastern Asia. Cloves form a very valuable resource in Zanzibar, also in the Molucca islands, and are widely cultivated in other parts of the tropics. Cinnamon products are secured chiefly from Cey lon and Indo-China and other regions in tropical Eastern Asia. Allspice is derived chiefly from the Antilles, Central America, northern South America and Jamaica, whence the name sometimes used, Jamaica pepper. Ginger is widely cultivated the world over in tropical and subtropical regions, Jamaica, India and parts of Africa, including Sierra Leone and Egypt. Turmeric has a similar range but is secured in commerce chiefly from India.
Nutmegs and mace were for a long time grown chiefly in certain islands of the Indian archipelago, but the culture is said to have reached the Antilles and parts of South America. The chief commercial sources continue to lie in tropical eastern Asia.
Importations.
The extent of the commerce of the United States in spices may be judged from the following table, taken from the Customs reports of the United States, giving the imports during the year ended June 30, 1905: Literature.
The products serving as spices are also drugs, and works on the latter subject treat of them. See Medicinal, Condimental and Aromatic Plants. See also, IL W. Wiley, Foods and their Adultera tions, Philadelphia (1907); A. L. Winton, The Micro scopy of Vegetable Foods (with collaboration of Dr. Josef Moeller), New York (1906); Henry G. Greenish, An Anatomical Atlas of Vegetable Pow ders, designed as an aid to microscopic analysis of powdered foods and drugs, London (1904).