Spices

Question 1

Spices

Answer 1

• Plant parts containing chemicals that produce smell and taste

Question 2

What are characteristics of aromatic compounds?

Answer 2

• Secondary metabolites
• Found in many different plants and parts
• Many functions in plant
• Essential oils

Question 3

What are functions of aromatic compounds in plants?

Answer 3

• Scent attractant
• Deterrent of herbivory
• Pathogen protection

Question 4

What are essential oils?

Answer 4

• Volatile hydrophobic molecules

Question 5

Common chemical group of aromatics?

Answer 5

• terpenes

- Built with 5 carbon isoprene units

Question 6

Spices were first trafficked to Europe by who?

Answer 6

• Arab traders

Question 7

Marco Polo accounted what?

Answer 7

• An abundance of Eastern spices in 1200’s

Question 8

Where do many pungent spices originate?

Answer 8

• Tropical and Asian origins

Question 9

When did spice explorations by sea begin?

Answer 9

• 1400’s by major seafaring countries Portugal, Spain, Dutch, English

Question 10

Who had dominance of spice trade in 1500’s

Answer 10

Portugal had India, China, Spice Islands

Question 11

Who gained control of spice trade in 1600’s

Answer 11

Dutch

- Dutch East India Company

Question 12

How did the British/English East India Company undermine Dutch control of spice trade after 1600’s?

Answer 12

• Established other areas of spice production

Question 13

What makes spices desirable?

Answer 13

• Smell, flavour, and aid to cure foods

Question 14

Black Pepper plant

Answer 14

Piper nigrum, Piperaceae, pepper family

- Climbing vine native to India

Question 15

How is black pepper prepared

Answer 15

• Green unripe berries dried, become black and shrivelled

Question 16

How is white pepper made?

Answer 16

• Using ripe black pepper berries, not unripe green

- Less pungent

Question 17

What is the world’s most widely used spice?

Answer 17

• Pepper

Question 18

What was pepper worth in Middle Ages Europe?

Answer 18

• 10 times more than other spices

Question 19

What is the pungent compound of pepper?

Answer 19

• Piperine, an alkaloid

Question 20

Nutmeg and Mace plant

Answer 20

• Myristica fragrans, Myristicaceae
• Nutmeg is stony seed
• Mace is aril, membrane around pit

Question 21

Myristicin

Answer 21

• Essential oil in nutmeg and mace

Question 22

Where is nutmeg/mace from?

Answer 22

• Only grew in spice islands originally

Question 23

Banda Islands

Answer 23

• Indonesia, previously known as Banda Islands

Question 24

History of Spice Islands through nutmeg

Answer 24

• 1603 British arrived
• 1616 Convinced inhabitants to acknowledge British king, became 1st English colony
• 1620 British lose control after Dutch siege, led to Anglo-Dutch wars to control spice world
• 1667 Treaty of Breda, relinquished Banda island to Dutch, British got another island that was originally Dutch
• 1776 French smuggle out seed and break Dutch monopoly

Question 25

Who broke Dutch monopoly on nutmeg/mace and how?

Answer 25

- French botanist Pierre Poivre | - Smuggled out seed in 1776 to grow in Mauritius

Question 26

Cloves

Answer 26

- Eugenia caryophyllata, Myrtaceae, Laurel family - Un-opened flower buds - Spice Islands, similar history as nutmeg

Question 27

Cinnamon

Answer 27

- Cinnamomum zeylanicum, Myrtaceae - Native to India and Sri Lanka - Inner bark of tree - Highly valuable and sought after

Question 28

Saffron

Answer 28

- Crocus sativa, Iridaceae, Iris family - Stigma of flowers - Give orange-yellow colour and delicate flavour - Spain major producer

Question 29

Hot Chili Peppers

Answer 29

- Capsicum spp., Solanaceae, nightshade family - Native to Central/South America - Pepper is the fruit

Question 30

Where does the hot taste in chili peppers come from? How does it affect body?

Answer 30

- Capsaicinoids - Group of 7alkaloids concentrated in seeds - Capsaicin binds to same nerve receptor that perceives burning temperature hotness

Question 31

Where does the word 'chili' originate?

Answer 31

- Mexican origin | - Long pod shape pepper

Question 32

How many cultivated chili species are there? Name a few

Answer 32

- 5 Cultivated species and many varieties - C. annuum most common (cayenne, jalapeño, bell, paprika) - C. frutescens, more fiery

Question 33

What are 2 new world spices?

Answer 33

- Hot chili peppers | - Vanilla

Question 34

Vanilla plant

Answer 34

- Vanilla plantifolia, Orchiaceae, orchid family - Native to rain forest in Central America - Over 18,000 species, vanilla only crop product

Question 35

Where was vanilla first discovered by Europeans and by who?

Answer 35

Spanish discovered in Aztec chocolatl

Question 36

How is vanilla prepared as a spice?

Answer 36

- Fruit pod is vanilla bean - Curing process involves drying, heating, sweating (i.e. fermentation) - Takes months

Question 37

What are the black specks in ice cream?

Answer 37

- seeds from natural vanilla

Question 38

What is the primary component of vanilla extract?

Answer 38

- Vanillin, and some other compounds

Question 39

Vanillin, what kind of compound and how artificially made?

Answer 39

- Phenolic, found in vanilla - Artificially synthesized from several substrates like lignin (wood component, wood pulp) - Genetically engineered yeasts can convert glucose to vanillin