Allspice Oil


Allspice Oil – Web Resources

Content derived from Wikipedia article on Allspice

Allspice - From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Allspice

Scientific classification

Kingdom: Plantae

Division: Magnoliophyta

Class: Magnoliopsida

Order: Myrtales

Family: Myrtaceae

Genus: Pimenta

Species: P. dioica

Binomial name - Pimenta dioica

(L.) Merr.

Allspice, also called Jamaica pepper, Myrtle pepper, pimento[1] , or newspice, is a spice which is the dried unripe fruit of the Pimenta dioica plant. The name "allspice" was coined by the English, who thought it combined the flavour of several spices, such as cloves, pepper, and even cinnamon and nutmeg.

Contents

1 Flavour

2 History

3 Preparation/Form

4 Uses

5 Cultivation

6 Notes

7 References

Flavour

Allspice has a complex aroma, hence its name. It is an aromatic spice with a taste similar to a combination of cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg, but hotter and more peppery.

History

Christopher Columbus discovered allspice in the Caribbean. Although he was seeking pepper, he had never actually seen real pepper and he thought allspice was it. He brought it back to Spain, where it got the name "pimienta," which is Spanish for pepper. Its Anglicized name, pimento, is occasionally used in the spice trade today. Before World War II, allspice was more widely used than it is nowadays. During the war, many trees producing allspice were cut, and production never fully recovered. Most allspice is produced in Jamaica, but some other sources for allspice include Guatemala, Honduras, as well as Mexico. Jamaican allspice is considered to be superior due to its higher oil content, which gives it a more appealing flavor.

Preparation/Form

Pimenta dioica Dried, unripe fruits of allspiceAllspice is not, as is mistakenly believed by some people who have only come across it in ground form, a mixture of spices. Rather, it is the dried fruit of the Pimenta dioica plant. The fruit is picked when it is green and unripe, traditionally they are then sun dried. When dry they are brown and look like large brown peppercorns.

Allspice is most commonly sold as whole dried fruits or as a powder. The whole fruits have a longer shelf-life than the powdered product and produce a more aromatic product when freshly ground before use. Fresh leaves are also used where available: they are similar in texture to bay leaves and are thus infused during cooking and then removed before serving. Unlike bay leaves, they lose much flavour when dried and stored. The leaves and wood are often used for smoking meats where allspice is a local crop.

Uses

Allspice is one of the most important ingredients of Caribbean cuisine. It is used in Caribbean jerk seasoning (the wood is used to smoke jerk in Jamaica, although the spice is a good substitute), in mole sauces, and in pickling; it is also an ingredient in commercial sausage preparations and curry powders. Allspice is also indispensable in Middle Eastern cuisine, particularly in the Levant where it is used to flavor a variety of stews and meat dishes. In Palestinian cuisine, for example, many main dishes call for allspice as the sole spice added for flavoring. Allspice is commonly used in Great Britain and appears in many dishes, including in cakes. Even in many countries where allspice is not very popular in the household, such as Germany, it is used in large amounts by commercial sausage makers. Allspice is also a main flavor used in barbeque sauces.

Allspice has also been used as a deodorant, 18th century Russian soldiers would put allspice in their boots.

Folklore suggests that allspice provides relief for digestive problems.

Volatile oils found in the plant contain eugenol, a weak antimicrobial agent (Yaniv, Sohara et al. 2005).

Cultivation

Allspice is a small shrubby tree, quite similar to the bay laurel in size and form. It can be grown outdoors in the tropics and subtropics with normal garden soil and watering. Smaller plants can be killed by frost, although larger plants are more tolerant. It adapts well to container culture and can be kept as a houseplant or in a greenhouse. The plant is dioecious, hence male and female plants must be kept in proximity in order to allow fruits to develop.

To protect the pimento trade the plant was guarded against export from Jamaica. It is reported that many attempts were made at growing the pimento from seeds, all failed. At one time it was thought that the plant would grow nowhere else except in Jamaica where the plant was readily spread by birds. Experiments were then performed using the constituents of bird droppings, however these were also totally unsuccessful. Eventually it was realized that an elevated temperature, such as that found inside a bird's body, was essential for germinating the seeds.

Notes

^ Note however, that the name pimento is also used for a certain kind of large, red, heart-shaped sweet pepper that measures three to four inches long and two to three inches wide. The flesh of this pimento is sweet, succulent and more aromatic than that of the red bell pepper. These pimientos are the familiar red stuffing found in quality green olives.

References

Herbs, Spices and Flavourings, Tom Stobart, Penguin books, 1977

Yaniv, Zohara et al. Hand Book of Medicinal Plants. 10 Alice Street, Bringhamton, NY 13904-1580: Food Products Press(r), 2005.

See resources for the A-Z of plant oils > A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z

 

See all plant oils starting with A - Aconite Oil, Ajwain Oil/Ajwoin Oil, Alfalfa Oil, Allspice Oil, Almond Oil, Aloe Vera Oil, Angelica Oil, Anise Oil, Apricot Oil, Arnica Oil, Artichoke Oil, Avocado Oil 

Main Sections @ PlantOils.in

PlantOils.in provides directory and web links resources for sourcing, e-commerce, buying and selling of plant oils, vegetable oils, essential oil, fixed oils & edible oil, oleoresins, oleoresin extract, oilseeds and related plant-derived products such as oil meals/oilmeals and oilcake, bio-fuel & bio-diesel. It is intended to be useful for plant-based oils and plant extracts research and information for buyers, sellers, manufacturers, traders, suppliers, producers, exporters and importers of plant oils and related bio-products, derivatives such as biofuels & biodiesel. It will make an effort to provide plant oils production and uses related research, data, product info, link on producers and distributors – both wholesale and retail - details on plant oil, vegetable oil companies & businesses, wholesalers & retailers, online, ecommerce & esourcing trade & market resources, data, bio-fuels business and market statistics such as price, prices, demand-supply for buyer, seller, company, manufacturer, trader, distributor, wholesaler, retailer, supplier, exporter, importer and producer.

Other Web Resources of Interest

You are at the Allspice Oil section of PlantOils.in

This page is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Allspice

Geo Reference

GeoDig – Get Local!

Have you checked out the GeoDig directories for over 30 countries? GeoDig provides useful local and regional web resources for over 200 cities around the world. See the list of cities and countries for which GeoDig provides locality-specific web resources.

North America

USA - Alabama (AL) > Birmingham; Alaska; Arkansas (AR) > Little Rock; Arizona (AZ) > Phoenix, Las Vegas, Tucson; California (CA) > Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento, Fresno, Bakersfield; Colorado, CO > Denver; Connecticut, CT > Hartford; District of Columbia, DC > Washington DC; Delaware (DE) > Wilmington; Florida > Miami, Orlando, Tampa, Orlando, Sarasota, West Palm Beach, Jacksonville; Georgia > Atlanta; Hawaii > Honolulu; Idaho; Illinois > Chicago; Indiana > Indianapolis; Iowa; Kansas (KS); Kentucky (KY) > Louisville; Louisiana (LA) > New Orleans, Baton Rouge; Maine; Maryland (MD) > Baltimore; Massachusetts > Boston, Springfield; Michigan > Detroit, Grand Rapids; Minnesota > Minneapolis-St. Paul; Mississippi (MS); Missouri (MO) > Kansas City, St. Louis; Montana; Nebraska (NE) > Omaha; Nevada (NV) > Las Vegas; New Hampshire; New Jersey (NJ) > Jersey City, Newark; New Mexico (NM) > Albuquerque; New York > New York, Buffalo, Rochester, Albany, Syracuse; North Carolina (NC) > Raleigh-Durham, Charlotte, Greensboro; North Dakota; Ohio> Columbus, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Toledo, Youngstown, Dayton; Oklahoma (OK) > Oklahoma City, Tulsa; Oregon > Portland; Pennsylvania > Philadelphia, Allentown, Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, Scranton, ; Rhode Island (RI) > Providence; South Carolina (SC) > Greenville; South Dakota; Tennessee (TN) > Knoxville, Memphis, Nashville; Texas > Austin, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, El Paso, Austin, McAllen; Utah (UT) > Salt Lake City; Vermont; Virginia (VA) > Norfolk, Richmond; Washington > Seattle; West Virginia; Wisconsin (WI) > Milwaukee; Wyoming

Canada - Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto, Calgary, Ottawa-Gatineau, Edmonton, Quebec City, Winnipeg, Hamilton, London

You are at the Allspice Oil section of PlantOils.in

Europe - UK - London, Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool, Sheffield, Leeds, Bristol, Edinburgh, Leicester; France - Paris, Marseille, Lyon, Toulouse, Nice, Nantes, Strasbourg, Montpellier, Bordeaux; Germany - Frankfurt (Frankfurt am Main), Munich (München), Berlin, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Cologne (Köln), Essen, Dortmund, Stuttgart, Bremen, Duisburg, Hannover, Nürnberg (Nuremberg), Dresden, Leipzig; Italy - Milan (Milano), Rome (Roma), Napoli (Naples), Torino (Turin), Palermo, Bologna, Firenze (Florence), Genova (Genoa); Spain - Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Sevilla, Zaragoza, Malaga, Murcia, Las Palmas, Bilbao; Scandinavia - Finland - Helsinki (Helsingin), Espoo, Tampere (Tampereen), Vantaa, Turku, Oulu, Sweden - Stockholm, Goteborg (Göteborg), Malmo (Malmö), Uppsala, Vasteras (Västerås), Denmark - Copenhagen (Københavns), Aarhus (Århus), Odense, Aalborg (Ålborg), Norway - Oslo, Bergen, Stavanger, Trondheim; Benelux - Belgium - Brussels (Brussel), Antwerp (Antwerpen), Ghent (Gent, Gand), Charleroi, Liège (Liege), Netherlands - Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht, Eindhoven, Tilburg, ‘s-Gravenhage (sGravenhage), Groningen, Luxembourg - Luxembourg City; Portugal – Lisbon; Greece – Athens; Hungary – Budapest; Poland – Warsaw; Switzerland - Zürich (Zurich), Geneva (Geneve, Genève), Basel, Bern (Berne), Lausanne; Austria - Linz, Vienna (Wien), Graz, Linz, Salzburg, Innsbruck; Ireland – Dublin

Asia - India - Mumbai, New Delhi, Bangalore; China & Hong Kong - Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Wuhan, Shenyang, Guangzhou, Harbin, Xian; Japan - Tokyo, Osaka, Yokohama, Nagoya, Sapporo, Kyoto, Kobe, Fukuoka, Kawasaki, Hiroshima; South Korea - Seoul, Pusa, Taegu, Incheon, Taejeon, Taiwan - Taipei; Malaysia - Kuala Lumpur; Singapore; Russia - Moscow, St Petersburg

Middle East - Turkey - Istanbul, Israel - Tel Aviv

Oceania - Australia - Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide

Africa - South Africa - Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban

You are at the Allspice Oil section of PlantOils.in