essential aromatics from plants

1. Essential aromatics from plants

4. Terminology Secondary plant products not critical for metabolism Essential oils volatile chemical compounds used in aromatherapy Herbs (botanical vs culinary) Spices (usually tropical) Perfumes later

5. Why did humans start using herbs and spices? Word �spice� has the same root as species, meant small products Evidence is that people started using spices all over the world By the mid-1300�s a Florence merchant listed 200 �spices� in his catalog

6. Why did humans start using herbs and spices? Did people use spices because of antimicrobial activity?

7. Some spices have antimicrobial activity

8. Ancient methods of food preservation Drying Freezing Curing (salt, etc.) Smoking (evidence from Ireland 2000 BC) Pickling Fermentation processes

9. Spices as preservatives Unlikely that the expensive spices (pepper, cloves, etc.) were ever used this way Onion and garlic�maybe thiosulfonates

10. Correlation between number of spices in recipes and average temperature Data from Paul Sherman, Cornell, March 1998 issue of the journal Quarterly Review of Biology. Why?

11. Wondering about spices� Pliny the Elder, in Natural History around 79 AD, says that "Long pepper ... is fifteen denarii per pound, while that of white pepper is seven, and of black, four." Pliny also complains "there is no year in which India does not drain the Roman Empire of fifty million sesterces."

12. More from Pliny the Elder It is quite surprising that the use of pepper has come so much into fashion, seeing that in other substances which we use, it is sometimes their sweetness, and sometimes their appearance that has attracted our notice; whereas, pepper has nothing in it that can plead as a recommendation to either fruit or berry, its only desirable quality being a certain pungency; and yet it is for this that we import it all the way from India! Who was the first to make trial of it as an article of food? and who, I wonder, was the man that was not content to prepare himself by hunger only for the satisfying of a greedy appetite?[8]

14. We always look to Europe� Peppers Found in prehistoric sites in Peru Thought first cultivated circa 6000 BC

15. Egyptian use of spices Queen Hathepsut sent an expedition to East Africa in about 1500 BC to bring back 31 frankincense trees, myrrh (and myrrh trees), cinnamon, numerous varieties of other incenses, cosmetics and perfumes.

17. Frankincense, from tree sap also (Boswellia species) Best from Oman, Yemen

18. Benzoin, flowers of Benjamin Styrax species Again it�s a gum from the plant Burned as incense, also medicinal

19. Egyptian Embalming Religious motivations preserve the body for the return of the soul two peppercorns were inserted in the nostrils of the mummy of Ramses II in 1224BC Mostly about drying and sodium bicarbonate

21. Earliest uses of spices One of the earliest documented records of spices is in the 1550 B.C. medical document "Ebers Papyrus" which stated that anise, cassia, cardamom, mustard and other aromatics were used by Egyptians. Kyphi�recipe for incense, said to be found here

22. Cardamom is in the ginger family Digestive as well as spice uses We associate more with India

23. Anise Pimpinella anisum L Same family as parsley, seeds are used Culinary and medicinal purposes since prehistoric times Digestion, toothache, as well as cakes

24. Recipe for an asthma treatment involving several herbs heated on a brick Aromatherapy!

25. Coriander Cilantro and Chinese Parsley Same family as anise Possible fruits from Israel, about 6000 BC Described in Sanskrit writings from India Egypt

27. Romans spread spices into Europe Europe-Asia trade left with the fall of the empire, 476 AD Dark ages--Europe mostly uses herbs Marco Polo--25 yrs in orient, wrote about it

28. Venice Dominates Spice Trade Middle Ages in Europe Spices extremely valuable a pound of ginger was worth the price of a sheep a pound of mace would buy three sheep or half cow cloves cost the equivalent of about $20 a pound many towns kept their accounts in pepper; taxes and rents were assessed and paid in this spice and a sack of. pepper was worth a man's life. Overland route; the sea routes were disrupted by Turks, others

29. Pepper (Piper nigrum) From India Long pepper, rarely used now

30. In the sole surviving cookery book from Latin antiquity, the De re coquinaria of Apicius, pepper appears in 349 of the 468 recipes

31. Perhaps the single most important stimulus to the Age of Exploration Marco Polo Age of Exploration Trade controlled by Portugal, then the Dutch, then the English Columbus was searching for Eastern spices New World spices--only vanilla, chili, allspice

32. Spice Islands

33. Cloves Chinese breath sweetener Spice Islands Dutch destroyed many plantations to drive up the price (1700�s) Unopened flower buds

35. Saffron World�s most expensive spice today Mediterranean Important commodity in ancient lands too From crocus stigmas, difficult to harvest $240 per oz Color and flavor

38. History of Spices Egyptians used herbs and spices over 3500 yrs ago included cinnamon, from Asia and China Greeks traded spices with Far East, Arab middlemen cinnamon, pepper, ginger Romans Broke Arab monopoly, went to India via Red Sea