| ALLSPICE [PIMENTO] |
| 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. |
|
| Botanical name | Family name | Commercial part |
| Pimenta dioica | Myrtaceae | Fruit & Seed |
| Indian names | |
| Kannada | : Gandamenasu |
| Malayalam | : Sarvasugandhi |
| Tamil | : Sarvasukanthi |
| Foreign Name of Spices | |
| Arabic | : Bahar, Bhar hub wa na’im |
| Danish | : Allehande |
| Dutch | : Jamaica pepper, piment |
| English | : Jamaica pepper, myrtle pepper, pimento, newspice |
| Estonian | : Harilik pimwnsipuu, Vurts |
| Finnish | : Maustepippuri |
| French | : Piment. Piment Jamaique, Poivre aromatique, toute-epice, poivre de la Jamaique |
| German | : Piment Neugewurz, Allgewurz, Nelkenpeffer, Jamaicapfeffer, Englisches Gewurz |
| Hungarian | : Jamaikai szegfubors, Szegfubors, Pimento, Amomummag |
| Icelandic | : Allrahanda |
| Italian | : Pimento, pepe di Giamaica |
| Norwegian | : Allehande |
| Polish | : Ziele angielskie |
| Portuguese | : Pimenta da Jamaica |
| Russian | : Yamaiskiy pjerets |
| Spanish | : Pimienta de Jamaica, Pimienta gorda |
| Swedish | : Kryddpeppar |
| Turkish | : Yeni bahar |
| For more details: mail@indianspices.com |