{"id":5354,"date":"2023-01-03T22:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-03T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/?p=5354"},"modified":"2022-12-11T14:58:16","modified_gmt":"2022-12-11T14:58:16","slug":"out-of-your-noggin-festive-spices-and-their-intoxicating-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/out-of-your-noggin-festive-spices-and-their-intoxicating-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Out of your noggin? Festive spices and their intoxicating history"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n \n
\n Spices and other aromatics have been a driving force in human history.\n Wikimedia Commons <\/span><\/span>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n\nMorgan Saletta<\/a>, The University of Melbourne<\/a><\/em><\/span>\n\n

Traditional Christmas and winter food and drinks such as mulled wine, eggnog, ginger bread and fruitcakes often call for more than a dash of what Jamie Oliver calls \u201cfestive spices<\/a>\u201d \u2013 cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg. <\/p>\n\n

These spices may give us more than just a taste of Christmas: they may be helping to bring on the Christmas cheer with subtle intoxicating effects. Could it be that these aromatic spices \u2013 especially nutmeg \u2013 are actually getting us high?<\/p>\n\n

Spices that are are good to think (with)<\/h2>\n\n

Most of us don\u2019t often reflect on what are, after all, commonly found ingredients on our spice racks. <\/p>\n\n

But, with apologies to French anthropologist Claude L\u00e9vi-Strauss<\/a> who said that animals are \u201cgood to eat\u201d but they are also \u201cgood to think\u201d, spices aren\u2019t just good to eat, they are good to think (with). <\/p>\n\n

Spices and other aromatics have been a driving force in human history, with economic, political and religious significance. The aromatics frankincense and myrrh were, after all, brought by the Three Wise Men to the baby Jesus.<\/p>\n\n

In addition to their use for flavour and food preservation, many spices and aromatics were used as drugs. First introduced to Europeans by Arab traders in the 12th century, nutmeg already had a long history of medicinal use around the Indian Ocean and in Asia, including as an aphrodisiac. Recent research suggests<\/a> this aphrodisiac effect may have a clinical basis. <\/p>\n\n

\n \"\"<\/a>\n
\n Nutmeg in the raw from Kerala.<\/span>\n Jim<\/span><\/span>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n\n

Nutmeg and cloves were once grown only in their native islands of the Moluccas or \u201cSpice Islands\u201d, within Indonesia. According to the Chinese traveller Wang Duyuan<\/a> Chinese merchants were visiting the Moluccas as early as 1350 in search of cloves<\/a>, which were valued medicinally. <\/p>\n\n

Marco Polo, famed Venetian traveller and also an astute observer of international trade and marketing<\/a>, wrote of Java in his Travels<\/a> (c. 1300):<\/p>\n\n

\n

Pepper, nutmegs \u2026 cloves, and all the other valuable spices and drugs are the produce of the island; which occasion it to be visited by many ships laden with merchandise that yields to the owners many profits. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

The role the \u201cSpice Islands\u201d played in Indian Ocean history and successive waves of Portuguese, Dutch, French and English colonialism has filled the pages of many history books. More recently this history has featured in Kate Humble\u2019s culinary travel documentary<\/a> by the BBC. <\/p>\n\n

In what is often called Portugal\u2019s national epic, the Luciads<\/a> (1572) in which Vasco de Gama\u2019s<\/a> historic voyage by sea to India in 1498 is a central part, the poet Lu\u00eds Vaz de Cam\u00f5es wrote: <\/p>\n\n

\n

Dry\u2019d in its flower, the nut of Banda\u2019s grove,
\nThe burning pepper, and the sable clove;
\nThe clove, whose odour on the breathing gale,
\nFar to the sea, Molucca\u2019s plains exhale.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Nutmeg\u2019s hidden lift<\/h2>\n\n

But let\u2019s return to Christmas cheer, and the possibly intoxicating effects of the festive spices \u2013 especially nutmeg. <\/p>\n\n

In Europe, reports of nutmeg intoxication date to the 1500s. It was also widely used as a medicine for stomach ailments, as a stimulant and as an (unsuccessful) abortifacient<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n

In The Canterbury Tales<\/a> (1390), Chaucer mentions nutmeg being added to ale<\/a>, and it is possible that this was for more than flavour. <\/p>\n\n

\n \"\"<\/a>\n
\n Too good to eat.<\/span>\n Trey Ratcliff<\/span><\/span>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n\n

Nutmeg is still widely used in Indonesia, added to milk as a calming drink for children. In the Moluccas, nutmeg oil is used<\/a> to soothe headaches and abdominal pain by rubbing it into the stomach or forehead. Nutmeg and mace (also from the nutmeg fruit) were also used to treat diarrhoea and other ailments. <\/p>\n\n

In the 19th century, the mind-altering properties of nutmeg were described by Czech physiologist Purkinje<\/a> in the form of dream imagery and an inordinately long walk to the Royal Theatre in Berlin. <\/p>\n\n

More recently nutmeg has been considered something of a prison drug<\/a> with cannabis-like effects. In his autobiography<\/a>, African-American human rights activist Malcolm X wrote about his prison experience with nutmeg:<\/p>\n\n

\n

a penny matchbox full of nutmeg had the kick of three or four reefers.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Large doses of nutmeg or nutmeg extract often also produce unpleasant results including headaches, nausea and in some cases hallucinations. In two extremely rare cases fatality has been reported<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n

But the best documented case<\/a> also involved the ingestion of a potentially lethal does of Rohypnol. In any case, the need to take large doses, the limited potency and the unpleasant side effects have limited the abuse<\/a> of nutmeg, so we are unlikely<\/a> to see a craze of nutmeg intoxication on our streets any time soon.<\/p>\n\n

\n \"\"<\/a>\n
\n Eggnog, anyone?<\/span>\n Reese Lloyd<\/span><\/span>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n\n

Still, the question remains \u2013 is that warm glow we feel after indulging in nutmeg and spice-laden food the result of an unexpected chemical pick-me-up? <\/p>\n\n

In 1966 pioneering American chemist Alexander Shulgin proposed<\/a> that the essential oil myristicin present in nutmeg might be transformed within the body into amphetamines, thus explaining nutmeg\u2019s psychotropic effects. But this remains unproven and speculative. <\/p>\n\n

According to<\/a> Czech chemist Professor Jeffrey Idle, it is also plausible that small quantities of these amphetamines are produced in cooking of traditional recipes such as gingerbread which call for healthy dashes of nutmeg and other essential oil rich spices. <\/p>\n\n

It is possible, regardless of the mechanism, that small quantities of chemical substances in nutmeg and other spices might be contributing to our holiday cheer. But Idle also points out another, perhaps more likely, scenario \u2013 the smell<\/a> of these spice that stimulates pleasurable memories. <\/p>\n\n

So rather than some subtle and slightly illicit buzz, that holiday cheer may just be a Proustean madeleine<\/a> effect \u2013 an involuntary memory \u2013 as those aromatic spices bring back the happy holiday memories of Christmas past.<\/p>\n\n


\n
\nThis article is part of The Conversation\u2019s End of Year series<\/a>.<\/em>\"The<\/p>\n\n

Morgan Saletta<\/a>, Doctoral Candidate History and Philosophy of Science, The University of Melbourne<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Spices and other aromatics have been a driving force in human history. Wikimedia Commons Morgan Saletta, The University…\n","protected":false},"author":324,"featured_media":5340,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18,17],"tags":[313,536,394,474],"class_list":{"0":"post-5354","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-history","8":"category-math-and-the-sciences","9":"tag-chemistry","10":"tag-food","11":"tag-spice","12":"tag-the-conversation","13":"cs-entry","14":"cs-video-wrap"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/324"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5354"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5354\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5355,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5354\/revisions\/5355"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}