SPICES AND CONDIMENTS (FR., Epices, Assaisonnements; GEE., Warze).
The terms " spice" and " condiment " are applied to those articles which, while possessing in themselves no nutritious principle, are added to food to render it more palatable. Spices are exclusively of vegetable origin, and generally consist of aromatic fruits. Condiments may be regarded as embracing mineral substances like salt, artificial compounds such as ketchup, aud bitters used for provoking an appetite. Salt is so much more important in chemical industries than as a flavouring, that it has been described in a separate article (see pp. 1710-40). The present article will include the dozen and a half spices which chiefly figure iu commerce, as well as that foundation of nearly all sauces, the Chinese soy.
Aniseed (sec pp. 334-5).—The common anise (Pimpinella Anisum) is a native of the Greek, Turkish, and Egyptian shores of the Mediterranean, but is nowhere found growing wild. It is cultivated in Touraine and Guienne (France), near Alicaute (Spain), in Puglia (S. Italy), in Malta, in Bohemia, Moravia, and several parts of N. and Central Germany, in the Russian districts of Orel, Tula, Woronesh, and Charkov, in Greece, Morocco, Persia, N. India, and some countries of S. America. Of the fruits forming the common " aniseed " of commerce, there were exported from Mogador, in 1880,2 serous, 8/., to France ; from Bushire, in 1879,500 rupees' worth to India ; from Revel, iu 1878,569 poods (of 36 lb.) to Great Britain ; from Guatemala, in 1878,16i quintals to Belize.
The true " star-anise," a fruit having exactly the same odour as anise, and from which an oil of anise (see p. 1416-7) is also prepared, is the hwai hiang of the Chinese, the fruit of anisatum, a small tree (25-30 ft.) indigenous to the countries lying south of China, and long since introduced into and now largely cultivated in the Chinese provinces of Yunnan and Kwangse. On tho other hand, the fruit of the Japanese species (I. religiosum), called skimi, fanna skimi, or somo in Japan, and ao-vau-su in China, though occasionally shipped from Japan to this eountry in ignorance, is a potent poison, and may be distinguished by having neither odour nor flavour of anise, but a smell resembling bay-leaves, and scarcely any taste at all. In English commerce, it is sometimes found mixed with the Chinese star-anise. Chinese anise is imported into Japan for use RS a spice.
The fruits of other apecies deserve mention here as poesible adulterants of or substitutes for the genuine star-anise. They are :—(I) L paroijiorum, of the hilly regions of Georgia and Carolina,
fruit having a sasaafras-like flavour ; (2) floricianam, the " poison-bay " of Alabama and Florida, the fruit divided into 13 (instead of 8) carpels or rays, and having the flavour of true star-anise ; (3) I. Griffithii, on the Bhotan and Khasia Hills at 4000-5000 ft., fruit bitter and acrid in flavour, and having RR odour between bay-leaves and cubebs ; (4) I. ma jus, on the Thoung Gain range in Tenasserim at 5500 ft., fruit sold as bunga laroang in Singapore, of mace-like flavour, and used ea a febrifuge.
Large quantities of star-anise are exported from China to England and the Continent, as well as overlaod to Yarkand and India. Macao, in 1879, shipped 8000 piculs (of 1334 lb.), the produce of Kwangse. Pakhoi exports pEtying duty were valued at 9045/. in 1879, the average weight of the shipments being 6500 pietas. Shanghai, iu 1879, despatched 631 piculs of whole, and 124 of broken. The approximate London market values are 37-40s. a cwt. for common anise, and 75-95s. for China star.
The essential oils of Etnise anti star-anise are described on pp. 1416-7.
Capsicums, Chillies, Cayenne., Red, or (Fa., Piment or Corail des Jardins, Poivre d' Inde, or de Guina ; GER., Spaniseher Pfeffer).—Of the many species or varieties of Capsicum, two contribute to the spice found in commerce :—C. fastigiatum [minimum], oe,curring wild in S. India, and extensively cultivated in tropical Afriea and America; and C. annuum [longum, grossum], of Algeria. Several varieties of the C. annuum have little or no pungency ; one of these is abundantly grown in Hungary, forming the paprika of the MEtgytirs. Another variety culti vated in Spain is imported into this eountry in powder for giving t,o cauEtries, to improve the colour of their feathers. The smEdler varieties (C. fastigiaturn) Etre usually known ae " chillies" or " bird pepper." The Nepal capsicums, which have an odour and flavour resembling orris-root, are the most esteemed as a condiment. The fruits of the first species are not more than in. long, while those of the second reach 2-3 in. Capsicum pods and the seeds dried and pounded aro considerable objects of trade. In 1871, Sierra Leone exported 7258 lb., and Natal, 9072 lb., while Singapore, in the same yeEtr, imported 1071 ewt., chiefly from Penang and Pegu. Bombay imported 5567 cwt., principally from the Madras Presidency, in 1872-3, and exported 3323 cwt.