Description
Allspice trees are evergreen medium sized, grow
up to a height of 8 to 10 meters and with a slender
upright trunk and smooth greyish bark. The mail
trees produce only few fruits. The male and female
trees are similar in appearance and cannot be
identified till flowering commences.
Origin and Distribution
The tree is
indigenous to West Indies (Jamaica) but is also
found in Central America. Attempts to introduce
into countries in tropical regions didn’t
succeed fully. In India, there are few trees in
Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala.
The dried berries range in size (6.5 to 9.5 mm
in diameter) and there are 13 to 14 berries per
gram. The quality of pimento is affected by factors
like growing area, stage of maturity of berries
at harvest and storage conditions.
Uses
The
major use of allspice is in food industry (65
to 70%) in domestic use (5% to 10%), production
of berry oil (20% to 25%), extraction of oleoresin
(1% to 2%) and pharmaceutical and perfume industry.
Berry, berry oil, oleoresin, leaf oil are products
of economic use. It is used mostly in Western
cooking and less suitable for Eastern cooking.
It has medicinal, anti-microbial, insecticidal,
nematicidal, anti-oxidant and deodorant properties.
