_Semen Amomi_; _Pimento_, _Allspice_, _Jamaica Pepper_; F. _Poivre de
la Jamaïque_, _Piment des Anglais_, _Toute-épice_; G. _Nelkenpfeffer_,
_Nelkenköpfe_, _Neugewürz_.
=Botanical Origin=—_Pimenta officinalis_ Lindley[1101] (_Myrtus
Pimenta_ L., _Eugenia Pimenta_ DC.), a beautiful evergreen tree,
growing to about 30 feet in height, with a trunk 2 feet in
circumference, common throughout the West India Islands. In Jamaica, it
prefers limestone hills near the sea, and is especially plentiful on
the north side of the island.
=History=—The high value placed on the spices of India sufficiently
explains the interest with which aromatic and pungent plants were
regarded by the early explorers of the New World; while the eager
desire to obtain these lucrative commodities is shown by the names
_Pepper_, _Cinnamon_, _Balsam_, _Melegueta_, _Amomum_, bestowed on
productions totally distinct from those originally so designated.
Among the spices thus brought to the notice of Europe were the
little dry berries of certain trees of the myrtle tribe, which had
some resemblance in shape and flavour to peppercorns, and hence were
named _Pimienta_,[1102] corrupted to _Pimenta_ or _Pimento_. It was
doubtless a drug of this kind, if not our veritable allspice, that
was given to Clusius in 1601 by Garret, a druggist of London, and
described and figured by the former in his _Liber Exoticorum_.[1103]
A few years later it began to be imported into England, being, as
Parkinson[1104] says, “obtruded for _Amomum_” (_Round Cardamom_), so
that “some more audacious than wise ... put it in their compositions
instead of the right.” Francesco Redi mentioned the fruits as
_Pimienta de Chapa_; Chiapas, now the south-eastern department of
Mexico, bordering Guatemala. Redi states that the spice was also
called _Pimienta de Tavasco_ from the adjoining department of Tabasco.
According to Sloane[1105] (1691) it was commonly sold by druggists for
_Carpobalsamum_. Ray (1693) distinguished the spice as a production of
Jamaica under the name of _Sweet-scented Jamaica Pepper_ or _Allspice_,
and states it to be abundantly imported into England, and in frequent
use as a condiment, though not employed in medicine. The spice had a
place in the London Pharmacopœia as early as 1721.
[1100] Rumphius in his letter from Amboina, Sept. 20, 1696, to Dr.
Schröck, in _Ephemerides Acad. Cæs. Leopold. Decur._ iii. Frankfurt
and Leipzig. 1700. p. 308, with figure.—Also Rumphius, _Herb. Amb._
ii. (1742) 11. tab. 2.—See also Hasskarl, _Neuer Schlüssel zu Rumph’s
Herb. Amb._, Halle, 1866; Berg, _Linnæa_, 1854. 137; Valmont de Bomare,
_Dict. d’Hist. Nat._ iii. (1775) 70.
[1101] Fig. in Bentley and Trimen, _Med. Plants_, part 20 (1877).
[1102] _Pimienta_, the Spanish for _pepper_, is derived
from _pigmentum_, a general name in mediæval Latin for
_spicery_.—_Malaguetta_ (see article Grana Paradisi) is also a name
which has been transferred by the Spaniards and Portuguese to the drug
under notice.
[1103] Lib. i. c. 17.
[1104] _Theatrum Botanicum_ (1640) 1567.
[1105] _Description of the Pimienta or Jamaica Pepper-tree._—_Phil.
Trans._ xvii. No. 191.
The consumption of Pimento has been enormous. In the year 1804-5,
the quantity shipped from the British West Indies was 2,257,000 lb.,
producing on import duty a net revenue of £38,063.[1106]
=Production and Commerce=—The spice found in commerce is furnished
wholly by the island of Jamaica. A plantation, there called a _Pimento
walk_, is a piece of natural woodland stocked with the trees, which
require but little attention. The flowers appear in June, July, and
August, and are quickly succeeded by the berries, which are gathered
when of full size but still unripe. This is performed by breaking off
the small twigs bearing the bunches. These are then spread out, and
exposed to the sun and air for some days, after which the stalks are
removed, and the berries are fit for being packed.
By an official document[1107] it appears that, in the year 1871, the
amount of land in Jamaica cropped with pimento was 7,178 acres. In that
year the island exported of the spice 6,857,838 lb., value £28,574. Of
this quantity Great Britain took 4,287,551 lb., and the United States
2,266,950 lb. In 1875 the export was 57,500 cwts., valued at £40,250,
of which 10,894 cwts. only went to the United States.
[1106] _Parliamentary Return_, March 1805, quoted in Young’s _West
India Commonplace Book_, 1807. 79.
[1107] _Blue Book_ for Jamaica, printed 1872.
=Description=—Allspice is a small, dry globular berry, rather variable
in size, measuring ³/₁₀ to less than ²/₁₀ of an inch in diameter. It is
crowned by a short style, seated in a depression, and surrounded by 4
short thick sepals; generally however the latter have been rubbed off,
a scar-like raised ring marking their former position. The berry has a
woody shell or pericarp, easily cut, of a dark ferruginous brown, and
rugose by reason of minute tubercles filled with essential oil. It is
two-celled, each cell containing a single, reniform, exalbuminous seed,
having a large spirally curved embryo. The seed is aromatic, but less
so than the pericarp.
Allspice has an agreeable, pungent, spicy flavour, much resembling that
of cloves.
=Microscopic Structure=—The outer layer of the pericarp, immediately
beneath the epidermis, contains numerous large cells filled with
essential oil. The parenchyme further exhibits thick-walled cells
loaded with resin, and smaller cells enclosing crystals of oxalate of
calcium. The whole tissue is traversed by small fibro-vascular bundles.
The seeds are also provided with a small number of oil-cells, and
contain starch granules.
=Chemical Composition=—The composition of pimento resembles in many
points that of cloves. The berries yield to the extent of 3 to 4½
per cent. a volatile oil, sp. gr. 1·037 (Gladstone), having the
characteristic taste and odour of the spice, and known in the shops as
_Oleum Pimentæ_. We have found it to deviate the ray of polarized light
2° to the left, when examined in a column of 50 mm.
Oeser (1864), whose experiments have been confirmed by Gladstone
(1872), has shown that oil of pimento has substantially the same
composition as oil of cloves; salicylic acid has not been found.
Pimento is rich in tannin, striking with a persalt of iron an inky
black. Its decoction is coloured deep blue by iodine, showing the
presence of starch. Dragendorff (1871) pointed out the existence in
allspice of an extremely small quantity of an alkaloid, having somewhat
the odour of coniine.
=Uses=—Employed as an aromatic clove; a distilled water (_Aqua
Pimentæ_) is frequently prescribed. The chief use of pimento is as a
culinary spice.
=Substitute=—The Mexican spice called _Pimienta de Tabasco_ (_Piment
Tabago_ Guibourt) is somewhat larger and less aromatic than Jamaica
allspice. Analogous products are afforded by _Pimenta acris_
Wight[1108] (_Myrcia acris_ DC, _Amomis acris_ Berg), the _Bay-berry_
tree, and _P. Pimento_ Griseb. The oil of bay-berry consists of eugenol
and a hydrocarbon, possibly identical with the “light oil of cloves”
(p. 284), but present in a larger amount. _Bay rum_, much used in the
United States by the perfumers, is an alcoholic tincture flavoured with
oil of bay-berry.