History of nutmeg

Myristica fragrans, of the Myristicaceae family, the nutmeg, is a large tropical tree with small yellow flowers and large, very fragrant.

For many years, this spice has been used as an aromatic stimulant, abortifacient, antiflatulent and as a means to induce menses. Nutmeg has its origin in the Spice Islands of Indonesia. Arab traders brought nutmeg to India, then to Europe, and eventually it was taken to the Caribbean by the Spanish.

Around the year 1000 the Persian physician Ibn Sina or Avicenna the most remarkable man of his time, described the muchk as jansi ban, nut of Banda.

The first really authenticated nutmegs are thought to have arrived at the Byzantine court in the 16th century, coming by way of the Bedouins; the Greeks translated the Arab word mesk, from Persia muchk, as moskhos.

The Banda Islands were discovered by the Portuguese in 1512. There, they found the the nutmeg tree on the islands. Beginning in the 17th century, the Dutch controlled the Spice Islands, and they monopolized the spice trade until British obtained nutmeg seedlings from Banda Islands at the end of the 18th century.

During the Middle Ages, fashionable Europeans carried their own nutmegs and graters to eating establishments as a status symbol.

In 1819, 100,000 of nutmeg trees were transplanted by the British Government to Ceylon and Bengal but the plantations were not successful.

References to the central nervous system affects of nutmeg appeared in the first part of the 19th century when Purkinje developed lethargy after consuming three nutmeg nuts.

Nutmeg was taken to the Caribbean island of St. Vincent in 1802, and then to Grenada in 1843 where cultivation expanded.
History of nutmeg