Nutmeg is the seed or spice of some species of the genus Myristica . Myristica fragrans (fragrant nutmeg or real nutmeg ) is a black leafed spruce plant cultivated for two spices derived from its fruit: nutmeg and mace. It is also a commercial source of essential oils and nutmeg butter. Pala California, Torreya californica , has the same fruits, but is not closely related to Myristica fragans .
Video Nutmeg
Common pala
Nutmeg is a spice made from the seed of a nutmeg tree ( Myristica fragrans ). Seasoning has a distinctive aroma of flavor and a slightly sweet taste of warmth; It is used to spice up a variety of baked goods, candies, puddings, potatoes, meats, sausages, sauces, vegetables, and drinks like eggnog.
The seeds are dried gradually in the sun for six to eight weeks. During this time the nutmeg shrinks away from its hard seed coat until the seeds are ticked in its shell when shaken. Her skin was then broken with a wooden stick and nutmeg was taken. The dry nard is a grayish brown oval with a wrinkled surface. Nutmeg is ovoid, about 20.5-30 mm in length (0.81-1,18 inches) wide and 15-18 mm (0.59-0.71 inches), weighs 5-10 g (0.18- 0.35 oz) dry.
Two other species of the genus Myristica can be used to forge nutmeg as a spice.
Maps Nutmeg
Mace
Mace is a spice made from reddish seed (aril) from nutmeg seed. It tastes similar to nutmeg but is softer; It is used to flavor baked goods, meat, fish, vegetables and in preserving and preserving.
In the processing of the mace, red aryls are removed from nutmeg seeds that envelop and are flattened and dried for 10 to 14 days. The color turns pale yellow, orange, or brown. The whole dried mingle consists of flat pieces - smooth, horny, and brittle - about 40 mm (1.6 inches) in length.
Botany and cultivation
The most important commercial species are common, true or fragrant nutmeg, Myristica fragrans (Myristicaceae), originally from the Banda Islands in Maluku (or Spice Islands) in Indonesia. It is also cultivated on Penang Island in Malaysia, in the Caribbean, especially in Grenada, and in Kerala, a country formerly known as Malabar in ancient writings as a spice trade hub, in southern India. In the seventeenth-century work of Hortus Botanicus Malabaricus, Hendrik van Rheede notes that Indians learned the use of nutmeg from Indonesians through ancient trade routes.
The nutmeg tree is a sexually propagated plant (seed) and asexual (cut or graft). Sexual reproduction results in 50% male seeds, which are unproductive. Since there is no reliable method for determining the sex of plants before flowering in the sixth to the eighth year, and sexual reproduction produces inconsistent results, grafting is the preferred method of propagation. Epicotyl grafting (variation of slit gap using seedlings), grafting approach, and budding planting have proved successful, with epicotyl grafting as the most widely adopted standard. Air layering is an alternative although the method is not preferred because of its low success rate (35-40%).
The first harvest of nutmeg trees lasts seven to nine years after planting, and the trees reach full production after twenty years.
Culinary used
Spices
Nutmeg and mace have similar sensory qualities, with nutmegs having a slightly sweeter taste and a softer mace. Mace is often preferred in light dishes for a bright orange color like the saffron it grows. Nutmeg is used to spice up many dishes, and is currently found in many Western supermarkets in the form of soil or grate. The whole plant can also be ground at home using grated specially designed for nutmeg.
In Indonesian cuisine, nutmeg is used in a variety of dishes, especially in many spicy soups, such as some variants of soto , konro , oxtail soup, rib soup soup ribs), meatball and goat soup . It is also used in sauces for meat dishes, such as beef stew, ribs with tomatoes, and European derivatives such as beef steak, rolade (bacon rolls) and tongue steak (steak tongue cow).
In Indian cuisine, nutmeg is used in many sweet dishes, as well as savory, (especially in Mughlai cuisine). In the Kerala Malabar region, grated nutmeg is used in meat preparations and is also added slightly to dessert for flavor. It can also be used in small quantities in masala salt . The soil rice is also smoked in India.
In traditional European cuisine, nutmeg and mace are used primarily in potato dishes and processed meat products; they are also used in soups, sauces, and baked goods. This is also commonly used in rice pudding. In Dutch cuisine, nutmeg is added to vegetables such as Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, and long beans. Nutmeg is a traditional herb in a meditated vinegar, a meditated wine, and eggnog. In Scotland, mace and nutmeg are usually the ingredients in haggis. In Italian cuisine, nutmeg is used as part of the stuffing for many meat-filled dumplings dumplings such as tortellini, as well as for traditional meatloaf. Nutmeg is a common seasoning for pumpkin pies and in recipes for other winter squash, such as baked acorn squash. In the Caribbean, nutmeg is often used in beverages, such as Bushwacker, Painkiller, and Barbados rum punch. Usually, it sprinkles over drinks.
Fruit
Pericarp is used to make jam, or finely sliced, cooked with sugar, and crystallized to make sweet candy. The slices of the nutmeg flesh are made as sweets, either wet, seasoned in a sweet syrup liquid, or dried coated with sugar, a dessert called candied nutmeg in Indonesia. In Penang cuisine, dried and crushed nutmeg shell with sugar coating is used as a unique topping in Penang peanut bean . The skin of the nutmeg is also mixed (creating a fresh, green, sharp flavor and white juice) or boiled (resulting in far sweeter and chocolate juice) to make ice nutmeg juice. In the Kerala Malabar region of India, it is used for juices, pickles, and chutney.
Essential oil
The essential oils obtained by distillation of ground nutmeg steam are widely used in perfume and pharmaceutical industries. This volatile fraction typically contains 60-80% d-weight campena, as well as the amounts of d-pinene, limonene, d-borneol, l-terpineol, geraniol, safrol, and myristicin. In pure form, the miristisin is toxic, and the consumption of nutmeg in large quantities can cause myristicin poisoning. Oil is colorless or light yellow, and the smell and taste of nutmeg. It is used as a natural food flavoring in baked goods, syrups, drinks, and sweets. This is used to replace the soil nutmeg, as it leaves no particles in the food. Essential oils are also used in cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries, such as toothpaste, and as ingredients in some cough syrups.
After the extraction of essential oils, the remaining seeds, containing less flavor, are called "spent". The former is often mixed in industrial plants with pure nutmeg to facilitate the grinding process, since nutmeg is not easily ground because of the high percentage of oil in pure seeds. Soil rice with percentage of variable spent (about 10% w/w) is also less likely to clump.
Powdered butter
Butter butter is obtained from nuts with expression. The color is semipadat, reddish-brown, and has the taste and smell of nutmeg itself. About 75% (by weight) of nutmeg butter is trimyristin, which can be converted to myristic acid, a 14-carbon fatty acid, which can be used as a substitute for cocoa butter, can be mixed with other fats such as cotton oil or coconut oil, and has applications as industrial lubricants.
History
Until the mid-19th century, the small island group of the Banda Islands, also known as the "Spice Islands," was the only nutmeg and nutmeg production site in the world. Banda Islands is located in the eastern part of Indonesia, in the province of Maluku. They consist of eleven small volcanic islands, called Neira, Volcano, Great Banda, Rhun, Ai, Hatta, Syahrir, Karaka, Manukan, Nailaka and Stone Ships, with a total estimated area of ​​8,150 hectares.
Nutmeg is known as a precious and expensive spice in European medieval cuisine as flavoring, medicine, and preservatives. Saint Theodore the Studite (c 758 - 826) permits its monks to sprinkle nutmeg on their peased pudding when it is necessary to eat it. In Elizabethan times, as nutmegs were believed to ward off the plague, demand increased and the price soared. [8]
Pala is known as a precious commodity by Muslim seafarers from the port of Basra (including the fictional character of Sinbad the Sailor in Thousand and One Nights ). It was sold by Arabs during the Middle Ages and was sold to Venice at a high price, but traders did not divulge the exact location of their source in the lucrative Indian Ocean trade, and no Europeans could deduce its location.
The Banda Islands became Europe's earliest business place in Asia, to gain a hold on the spice trade. In August 1511, Afonso de Albuquerque conquered Malacca, which at the time was the center of Asian trade, in the name of the king of Portugal. In November of the same year, after securing Malacca and learning the Banda location, Albuquerque sent a three-ship expedition led by his friend AntÃÆ'³nio de Abreu to find him. Malay pilots, both recruited or forced into conscription, guided them through Java, Little Sunda and Ambon to the Banda Islands, arriving early in 1512. [9] The first Europeans to reach the Banda Islands, the expedition lasts for about a month, buying and filling their vessels with nutmeg and Banda nutmeg, and with cloves where Banda has a growing entrepÃÆ'Â't trade. [10] An early Banda account is at Suma Oriental , a book written by Portuguese pharmacist TomÃÆ' Â © Pires, based in Malacca from 1512 to 1515. Full control over this trade by the Portuguese is not possible, and they remain participants without a foothold on the islands.
In order to obtain a monopoly on the production and trade of nutmegs, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) conducted a bloody battle with the Bandaans in 1621. Historian Willard Hanna estimated that before this struggle the islands were populated by about 15,000 people, and only 1,000 the remaining (Banda people killed, starving at the time of escape, exiled or sold as slaves). The company built a comprehensive nutmeg plantation system on the islands during the 17th century. These include nutmeg plantations for the production of spices, several fortresses for spice defense, and colonial cities for commerce and government. But the Netherlands is not the only occupant in this region. Englishmen skillfully negotiate with village leaders on the island of Rhun to protect them from the Netherlands in return for their nutmeg monopoly. The village leader Rhun accepted King James I of England as their sovereignty, but the British presence in Rhun only lasted until 1624. The control of the Banda Islands continued up for grabs until 1667 when, in the Breda Treaty, England handed Rhun to the Netherlands in exchange for Manhattan island and his city New Amsterdam then 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 nutmeg tree and transplanted, complete with land, 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 into their other colonial possessions elsewhere, notably Zanzibar and Grenada. Grenada national flag, adopted in 1974, shows nutmeg split in two. The Dutch maintained control of the Spice Islands until World War II.
Connecticut received its nickname ("State of Nut", "Nutmegger") from the claim that some unscrupulous merchants of Connecticut would tidy up the "nutmeg" of the wood, creating "wooden nutmeg", a term that would later be interpreted as a type of fraud.
World production
World nutmeg production is estimated to average between 10,000 and 12,000 tons per year, with an annual world demand estimated at more than 9,000 tons; mace production is estimated at 1,500 to 2,000 tons. Indonesia and Grenada dominate the production and exports of both products, with a global market share of 75% and 20% respectively. Other producers include India, Malaysia (especially Penang, where the trees grow wild in wild areas), Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka, and Caribbean islands, such as St. Vincent. The main import markets are the European Community, the United States, Japan, and India. Singapore and the Netherlands are major exporters.
Nature and medical research
In the 19th century, nutmeg was regarded as abortive, causing many cases of nutmeg poisoning to be recorded. Although used as a traditional treatment for other diseases, nutmeg has no proven drug value.
One study showed that macelignant compounds isolated from Myristica fragrans may have antimicrobial activity against Streptococcus mutans, but this is not a confirmed treatment.
In doses that exceed its use as a spice, nutmegs may interact with anxiolytic drugs, produce allergic reactions, cause contact dermatitis, or evoke acute episodes of psychosis.
A study evaluating the effects of some food flavors in bioactivity screening tests associated with antiobesity found that nutmegs were able to modulate CB receptors 1 . Other studies have shown that nutmeg extract has concentration-dependent inhibition for FAAH and MAGL, key enzymes in hydrolysis of endocannabinoids anandamide (AEA) and 2-arachidonoylglycerol (2-AG), thereby increasing levels, and inhibition of endocannabinoid metabolism enzymes by nutmeg extracts explaining effects such as marijuana given by nutmeg.
Psychoactivity and toxicity
Effects
In low doses, nutmeg does not produce a real physiological or neurological response, but in large doses, raw nutmeg has a psychoactive effect derived from the anticholinergic hallucinogenic mechanism associated with myristicin and elemisin. Myristicin, a monoamine oxidase inhibitor and psychoactive substance, can induce seizures, palpitations, nausea, eventually dehydration, and general body pain. For these reasons in some countries, whole nutmeg or nutmeg can have import restrictions except in spice mixtures containing less than 20 percent of nutmeg.
Nutritional poisoning occurs due to unintentional consumption in children and by intentional abuse with other drugs in adolescents. Fatal myristicin poisoning in humans is rare, but three have been reported, including one in children aged 8 years and one in adults 55 years, with the latter case being associated with combination with flunitrazepam.
Nutmeg intoxication can vary greatly from person to person, but is often associated with side effects such as excitement, anxiety, confusion, headache, nausea, dizziness, dry mouth, red eyes, and amnesia. Nutrient poisoning is also reported to cause hallucinogenic effects, such as visual distortions and paranoia. Although rarely reported, nutmeg overdose can result in death, especially when combined with other medications. Intoxication lasts several hours before the maximum effect occurs. The effects of nutmeg poisoning can last for several days.
Toxicity during pregnancy
Nutmeg was once considered abortifacient, but may be safe for culinary use during pregnancy. However, it inhibits the production of prostaglandins and contains hallucinogens that can affect the fetus if consumed in large quantities.
Poisoning for pets
While the spicy scent of nutmeg may be of interest to pets, there is potential for toxicity if large quantities are consumed.
References
Further reading
- Brierley, J. H. (1994). Spices: The Story of the Indonesian Spice Trade . Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Burnet, Ian. (2011). Spice Islands . New South Wales (Aus): Rosenberg Publishing.
- Burroughs, William S. (1959). Naked Lunch . Paris: Olympia Press. p.Ã, 228.
- Devereux, P. (1996). Reliving the Earth: A Guide to Opening the Healing Between Mind and Nature . New York: Fireside. pp.Ã, 261-262.
- Gable, R. S. (2006). "Toxicity of recreational drugs". American scientist . 94 : 206-208. doi: 10.1511/2006.59.3484.
- Hanna, Willard (1991). Indonesian Banda: Colonialism and Its Occurrence in the Pala Islands . Maluku, Eastern Indonesia: Heritage Foundation and Banda Neira Culture.
- Milton, Giles (1999). Nathaniel's Nutmeg: How One Person's Courage Changed the Path of History .
External links
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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