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.

Indian Name of Spices

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