The seeds are dried gradually in the sun over a period of six to
eight weeks. During this time the nutmeg shrinks away from its hard seed coat
until the kernels rattle in their shells when shaken. The shell is then broken
with a wooden club and the nutmegs are picked out. Dried nutmegs are grayish
brown ovals with furrowed surfaces.
The nutmegs are roughly egg-shaped, about 20 to 30 mm (0.8 to 1.2 in) long and 15 to 18 mm (0.6 to 0.7 in) wide, and weighing between 5 and 10 g (0.2 and 0.4 oz) dried.
Two other species are used to adulterate the nutmeg spice
Mace
Mace
Mace is the spice made from the reddish seed covering (aril)
of the nutmeg seed. Its flavour is similar to nutmeg but more delicate; it is
used to flavour bakery, meat, fish, vegetables and in preserving and pickling.
Nutmeg
tree
The most important commercial species is the common, true or
fragrant nutmeg, Myristica fragrans (Myristicaceae), native to the Banda Islands in the Moluccas (or Spice Islands) of Indonesia.[5][6] It is also cultivated on Penang Island in Malaysia, in the Caribbean, especially in Grenada, and in Kerala, a state formerly known as Malabar in
ancient writings as the hub of spice trading, in southern India. In the
17th-century work Hortus Botanicus
Malabaricus, Hendrik van Rheede records
that Indians learned
the usage of nutmeg from the Indonesians through ancient trade routes.
Nutmeg trees are dioecious plants which are propagated
sexually (seeds) and asexually (cuttings or grafting). Sexual propagation yields 50% male
seedlings, which are unproductive. As there is no reliable method of
determining plant sex before flowering in the sixth to eighth year, and sexual
reproduction bears inconsistent yields, grafting is the preferred method of
propagation. Epicotyl grafting (a variation of cleft grafting using seedlings), approach grafting, and patch budding have proved successful,
with epicotyl grafting being the most widely adopted standard. Air layering is an alternative though not
preferred method because of its low (35-40%) success rate.
The first harvest of nutmeg trees takes place seven to nine
years after planting, and the trees reach full production after twenty years.
Spice
Nutmeg and mace have similar sensory qualities, with nutmeg
having a slightly sweeter and mace a more delicate flavour. Mace is often
preferred in light dishes for the bright orange, saffron-like hue it imparts. Nutmeg is used
for flavouring many dishes, usually in ground or grated form, and is best
grated fresh in a nutmeg grater.
In Indonesian cuisine,
nutmeg is used in various dishes mainly in many spicy soups, such as some
variant of soto, konro, oxtail soup, sup iga (ribs
soup), bakso and sup kambing. It is also used in gravy for
meat dishes, such as semur beef
stew, ribs with tomato, to European derived dishes such as bistik (beef
steak), rolade (minced meat roll) and bistik lidah (beef
tongue steak).
In Indian cuisine,
nutmeg is used in many sweet, as well as savoury, dishes (predominantly in Mughlai cuisine). In Kerala Malabar region, grated nutmeg is used in meat
preparations and also sparingly added to desserts for the flavour. It may also
be used in small quantities in garam masala. Ground nutmeg is also smoked
in India
In traditional European cuisine, nutmeg and mace are used
especially in potato dishes and in processed meat
products; they are also used in soups, sauces, and baked goods. It is also
commonly used in rice pudding.
In Dutch cuisine,
nutmeg is added to vegetables such as Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, and string
beans. Nutmeg is a traditional ingredient in mulled cider, mulled wine, and eggnog. In Scotland, mace and nutmeg are
usually both ingredients in haggis. In Italian cuisine, nutmeg is used as part of the
stuffing for many regional meat-filled dumplings like tortellini, as well as for the
traditional meatloaf. Nutmeg is a
common spice for pumpkin pie[ and in recipes for
other winter squashes such
as baked acorn squash. In
the Caribbean, nutmeg is often used in drinks such as the Bushwacker, Painkiller,
and Barbados rum punch. Typically, it is a sprinkle on
the top of the drink.
Fruit
The pericarp (fruit
covering) is used to make jam, or is finely sliced, cooked with sugar, and
crystallised to make a fragrant candy. Sliced nutmeg fruit flesh is made
as manisan (sweets), either wet, which is seasoned in sugary
syrup liquid, or dry coated with sugar, a dessert called manisan pala in
Indonesia. In Penang cuisine,
dried, shredded nutmeg rind with sugar coating is used as toppings on the
uniquely Penang ais kacang.
Nutmeg rind is also blended (creating a fresh, green, tangy taste and white
colour juice) or boiled (resulting in a much sweeter and brown juice) to make
iced nutmeg juice. In Kerala Malabar region of India, it is used for
juice, pickles and chutney.
Essential
oil
The essential oil obtained by steam distillation of
ground nutmeg is used widely in the perfumery and pharmaceutical industries. This volatile
fraction typically contains 60-80% d-camphene by weight, as well as quantities
of d-pinene, limonene, d-borneol, l-terpineol, geraniol, safrol, and myristicin. In
its pure form, myristicin is a toxin, and consumption of excessive amounts of
nutmeg can result in myristicin poisoning. The
oil is colourless or light yellow, and smells and tastes of nutmeg. It is used
as a natural food flavouring in baked goods, syrups, beverages, and sweets. It
is used to replace ground nutmeg, as it leaves no particles in the food. The
essential oil is also used in the cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries, such
as toothpaste, and as an ingredient in some cough syrups.
After extraction of the essential oil, the remaining seed,
containing much less flavour, is called "spent". Spent is often mixed
in industrial mills with pure nutmeg to facilitate the milling process, as
nutmeg is not easy to mill due to the high percentage of oil in the pure seed.
Ground nutmeg with a variable percentage of spent (around 10% w/w) is also less
likely to clot.
Nutmeg
butter
Nutmeg butter is obtained from the nut by expression. It is semisolid, reddish-brown in
colour, and tastes and smells of nutmeg. About
75% (by weight) of nutmeg butter is trimyristin, which
can be turned into myristic acid, a 14-carbon fatty acid, which can be used as a replacement
for cocoa butter, can
be mixed with other fats like cottonseed oil or palm oil, and has applications as an
industrial lubricant.
Nutmeg is known to have been a prized and costly spice in
European medieval cuisine as
a flavouring, medicinal, and preservative agent. Saint Theodore the
Studite (c. 758 – 826) allowed his monks to sprinkle nutmeg on
their pease pudding when
required to eat it. In Elizabethan times, because nutmeg was believed to ward
off the plague, demand increased and its price skyrocketed
Nutmeg was known as a valuable commodity by Muslim sailors from
the port of Basra (including the fictional
character Sinbad the Sailor in
the One Thousand and One Nights). Nutmeg was traded by Arabs during
the Middle Ages and sold to the Venetians for high prices, but the traders did
not divulge the exact location of their source in the profitable Indian Ocean
trade, and no European was able to deduce its location.
The Banda Islands became the scene of the earliest European
ventures in Asia, in order to get a grip on the spice trade. In August
1511, Afonso de Albuquerqueconquered Malacca, which at the time was the hub of
Asian trade, on behalf of the king of Portugal. In November of the same year, after
having secured Malacca and learning of Banda's location, Albuquerque sent an
expedition of three ships led by his friend António de Abreu to
find it. Malay pilots, either recruited or forcibly conscripted, guided them
via Java, the Lesser Sundas,
and Ambon to the
Banda Islands, arriving in early 1512 The first Europeans to reach the
Banda Islands, the expedition remained for about a month, buying and filling
their ships with Banda's nutmeg and mace, and with cloves in which Banda had a
thriving entrepôt trade.[ ]An early
account of Banda is in Suma Oriental, a book written by the
Portuguese apothecary Tomé Pires, based in Malacca from 1512 to
1515. Full control of this trade by the Portuguese was not possible, and they
remained participants without a foothold in the islands.
In order to obtain a monopoly, on the production and trade of nutmeg,
the Dutch East India
Company (VOC) waged a bloody battle with the Bandanese in 1621.
Historian Willard Hanna estimated
that before this struggle the islands were populated by approximately 15,000
people, and only 1,000 were left (the Bandanese were killed, starved while
fleeing, exiled or sold as slaves).[ The Company constructed a
comprehensive nutmeg plantation system on the islands during the 17th century.
It included the nutmeg plantations for spice production, several forts for the defense of the spices, and
a colonial town for trading and governance. The Dutch were not the only
occupants of this region, however. The British skillfully negotiated with the
village leaders on the island Rhun to protect them from the Dutch in exchange
for a monopoly on their nutmeg. The village leader of Rhun accepted King James I of England as their
sovereign, but the English presence on Rhun only lasted until 1624. Control of
the Banda Islands continued to be contested until 1667 when, in the Treaty of Breda,
the British ceded Rhun to the Dutch in exchange for the island of Manhattan and its city New Amsterdam
(later New York) in North
America.
As a result of the Dutch interregnum during the Napoleonic Wars, the British took temporary
control of the Banda Islands from the Dutch and transplanted nutmeg trees,
complete with soil, to Sri Lanka,
Penang, Bencoolen,
and Singapore. (There
is evidence that the tree existed in Sri Lanka even before this.) From
these locations they were transplanted to their other colonial holdings
elsewhere, notably Zanzibar and
Grenada. The national flag of Grenada, adopted in 1974, shows a
stylised split-open nutmeg fruit. The Dutch retained control of the Spice
Islands until World War
Connecticut received
its nickname ("the Nutmeg State", "Nutmegger") from the claim that some unscrupulous
Connecticut traders would whittle "nutmeg" out of wood, creating a
"wooden nutmeg", a term which later came to mean any type of fraud.[19]
World
production
World production of nutmeg is estimated to average between
10,000 and 12,000 tonnes per year, with annual world demand estimated at 9,000
tonnes; production of mace is estimated at 1,500 to 2,000 tonnes. Indonesia and Grenada dominate
production and exports of both products, with world market shares of 75% and
20%, respectively. Other producers include India, Malaysia (especially Penang,
where the trees grow wild within untamed areas[citation needed]), Papua
New Guinea, Sri Lanka, and Caribbean islands, such as St. Vincent.
The principal import markets are the European Community, the United States,
Japan, and India. Singapore and the Netherlands are major re-exporters.
Medicinal
properties and research
In the 19th century, nutmeg was used as an abortifacient, which led to numerous recorded
cases of nutmeg poisoning. Although
used as a folk treatment for
other ailments, nutmeg has no proven medicinal value today.
One study showed that the compound macelignan isolated from Myristica
fragrans may exert antimicrobial activity against Streptococcus mutans,[21] but this is not a
currently used treatment.
In doses exceeding its use as a seasoning, nutmeg may interact with anxiolytic drugs, produce allergic reactions, cause contact dermatitis,
or evoke acute episodes of psychosis.
Effects
In low doses, nutmeg produces no noticeable physiological or
neurological response, but in large doses, raw nutmeg has psychoactive effects deriving
from anticholinergic-like hallucinogenic mechanisms attributed
to myristicin and elemicin. Myristicin,
a monoamine
oxidase inhibitor and psychoactive substance, can
induce convulsions, palpitations, nausea, eventual dehydration, and generalized body pain. For
these reasons in some countries, whole or ground nutmeg may have import restrictions except in spice
mixtures containing less than 20 percent nutmeg
Nutmeg poisonings occur by accidental consumption in children
and by intentional abuse with other
drugs in teenagers.
Fatal myristicin poisonings in humans are rare, but three
have been reported, including one in an 8-year-old child and another in a
55-year-old adult, with the latter case attributed to a combination with flunitrazepam. ]
Nutmeg intoxication can vary greatly from person to person, but
is often associated with side effects such as excitedness, anxiety, confusion,
headaches, nausea, dizziness, dry mouth, redness in eyes, and amnesia. Nutmeg
poisoning is also reported to induce hallucinogenic effects, such as visual
distortions and paranoia Although
rarely reported, nutmeg overdose can result in death, especially if combined
with other drugs Intoxication takes several hours before maximum effect
is experienced.
The effects of nutmeg intoxication may last for several
days.
Toxicity during pregnancy[
Nutmeg was once considered an abortifacient, but may be safe for culinary
use during pregnancy. However, it
inhibits prostaglandin production
and contains hallucinogens that may affect the fetus if
consumed in large quantities.
Toxicity to dogs[
Nutmeg is highly neurotoxic to dogs and causes seizures,
tremors, and nervous system disorders which can be fatal. Nutmeg's rich, spicy
scent is attractive to dogs which can result in a dog ingesting a lethal amount
of this spice. Eggnog and other food preparations which contain nutmeg should
not be given to dogs
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