Nutmeg Mace and Allspice

Did you know there's a spice named Mace?  It's closely related to Nutmeg, and Allspice can be a distant cousin.  Find out how and why!  They're not just for the holiday season.  Incorporate these 3 spices into your daily life for some amazing results!

Music composed and performed by V. Karaitis

Transcript

Hey!  Thanks for listening!  I’m Chris Wagenti, and this is Who Gets It, Naturally.  Music was composed and performed by V. Karaitis.    I’m not selling anything, diagnosing anything; offering any cures or replacing your doctor.  I’m just sharing my passion for natural products.  If you’re pregnant, please consult your doctor before trying anything new.  Everyone is different so you may need to tweak the recipes a bit to work for you.  Always start with the least amount of essential oils…you can always add, you can’t take away.  Remember, these remedies don’t last forever, you need to reapply as needed.  If you are allergic to any of the ingredients I use, please substitute for something you’re not allergic to.  Just because it’s natural doesn’t mean you can’t be allergic to it.

OK, First, shout out to new listeners in Lewiston, Maine, and Natrona Heights, PA.  Welcome!!!

This is my favorite time of year; the weather is starting to cool off; Halloween can be loads of fun; and the holidays are just around the corner.  This is when everybody starts baking, and you break out those weird spices you only use this time of year…Nutmeg, Allspice, Mace, lots of Cinnamon.  We already dove deep into Cinnamon.  Let’s cover the other spices.  

We’ll start with Nutmeg.  Nutmeg is not a nut.  It’s a seed from the Nutmeg tree.  The Nutmeg Tree is a tropical evergreen native to the Spice Islands in Indonesia.  It is also cultivated in the West Indies.  There are many variations of Nutmeg in different countries, but this is true Nutmeg.

The tree bears a fruit called a drupe, which kinda looks like an apricot.  The seeds, Nutmeg, are surrounded by a fleshy sac, which is another spice, Mace.  More on Mace in a bit.  Side note, the Nutmeg Tree is the only source of two separate and distinct spices.  The Nutmegs are dried in the sun for about 8 weeks, then ground up.  You can buy the seeds whole and grate them yourself, but you do need a very fine grater, meaning the holes should be really small.  Nutmeg has a distinctive pungent fragrance and a warm, slightly sweet taste.  It can be used in either sweet or savory dishes.  It’s used in stews, soups, baked goods, deserts and probably most notably, on eggnog.  Sprinkle some Nutmeg on starchy veggies like sweet potatoes.  You can use it alone, or blend it with other spices like Cardamom, Cinnamon and Clove.  Add it to hot and cold beverages like chai tea, apple cider and hot chocolate.  

The Romans used ground Nutmeg as incense, and it was also used as a sachet.  The major components of Nutmeg are pinene, camphene and dipentene.  

I’ve talked about pinene and camphene…to refresh your memory, pinene is found in many plants and herbs, especially the Pines and Firs, Basil, Rosemary, Cannabis.  It’s an antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, antifungal and on and on… and is great for pain relief, memory issues, including Alzheimer’s and the respiratory tract, and that’s just a few of its benefits.  

Camphene is also found in lots of plants and herbs including the Pines and Firs, Rosemary and Cannabis, and also has antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, antifungal properties, among others, and is also great for relieving pain and lowering cholesterol.  

Dipentene - D-I-P-E-N-T-E-N-E, aka D-Limonene, has a citrus odor, leaning more towards orange than lemon.  When extracted and used on its own, besides flavoring and scenting, it is used to remove adhesives, oil, wax and other substances from machines, electronics, etc.  It’s used as an herbicide and insecticide.  It can cause contact dermatitis.  In fact, I believe it is among my list of irritants.  I don’t really use Nutmeg, so I’m not sure if I’m allergic to it as well…with my luck, probably.  Luckily there are other spices I can use instead.  Oh, yeah, and dipentene is flammable.   The amount of dipentene naturally occurring in Nutmeg is minimal. 

Using Nutmeg in small amounts for flavoring everyday can be beneficial.  It can reduce inflammation, which not only causes pain, but is also linked to heart disease, diabetes and arthritis.  It’s packed with antioxidants, so it can help lower oxidative stress, which can cause cancer, diabetes, neurodegenerative issues such as Alzheimer’s, damage cells and speed up the aging process.  Nutmeg can also help reduce blood sugar, cholesterol and triglyceride levels.  It may even help boost your libido.  

NOTE:   Too much Nutmeg can be a very bad thing.  Other than pinene, camphene and dipentene, it contains small amounts of the compounds myristicin and safrole.  Myristicin is an insecticide and can produce hallucinogenic side effects when ingested.  In fact, in the 1960’s and 70’s, Nutmeg was used as a psychedelic drug, but the intense headaches left afterwards deterred further use in this capacity.  It does take a large amount to induce hallucinations.  Safrole is a known carcinogen in mice.  It is found in many herbs and spices, and in large amounts in sassafras, which has been banned in the US since the 1970’s.  This is also why sassafras is no longer used to make root beer.  

Nutmeg toxicity can cause serious symptoms, such as rapid heartbeat, nausea, disorientation, vomiting, and agitation. It may even lead to death when combined with other drugs.

It’s important to note that the toxic effects of this spice are linked to the ingestion of large amounts of nutmeg — not the small amounts typically used in the kitchen.

To avoid these potentially harmful side effects, avoid consuming large amounts of nutmeg and do not use it as a recreational drug.  Also, limit the amount given to infants and toddlers. 

Nutmeg Essential Oil is thin and light yellow.  It has a strong spicy scent with a musky undertone.  It has been used in traditional medicine since ancient times due to the abundance of therapeutic characteristics it contains.  It’s both a sedative and a stimulant.  Some of its properties are anti-inflammatory, pain-relieving, antimicrobial, cleansing and energizing.  Nutmeg Essential Oil relieves joint pain, elevates mood, regulates menstrual cycles and hormones in women and treats the common cold and lung problems.  It’s also great for clear skin and healthy hair.  This, coupled with its revitalizing scent, makes it a popular addition to perfumes, soaps, shower gels, cleansers, moisturizers, as well as shampoos, conditioners and dental care products.

Nutmeg Essential Oil helps maintain blood pressure levels and eases stress and tension. It also alleviates depression, anxiety, insomnia and promotes deep sleep.  Its antimicrobial properties help maintain good oral hygiene. It helps with many skin issues including acne, dark spots, uneven skin tone, eczema and scars.

It’s even used as a decongestant.  It helps decrease tightness, pain in the chest, and minimizes symptoms of asthma, allergies and wheezing. 

Nutmeg Essential Oil even helps keep the gastrointestinal tract healthy. 

Like the spice, the essential oils help improve the libido.  

For your hair, Nutmeg Essential Oil helps keep your hair shiny and silky smooth, helps stop breakage and fall out, and leaves it smelling fresh.  
Keep in mind that like the spice, excessive amounts of Nutmeg Essential Oil can be toxic.  When it comes to Nutmeg, a little goes a long way.  

Ok, so, isn’t Mace what you use to spray in an attacker’s face?  Sort of.  Mace is a brand name for a form of pepper spray.  But it is also a spice derived from the Nutmeg Tree.  It’s the bright red lacy covering over the Nutmeg Seed, and is a culinary spice in its own right.  It is similar to Nutmeg.  If they were siblings, Nutmeg would be the over-protective big brother and Mace would be the sweet younger sister.  You can buy Mace in ground form or in blades.  Like whole Nutmeg, Mace blades should be ground with a fine grater.  You’re actually better off doing this, because once Mace is ground, it loses a lot of its flavor and benefits.  You can also use the blades like a bay leaf…add it to soups and other long cooking recipes.  It can be used in stews with lamb, pork or beef; sweet potatoes; fruits and desserts…try using Mace instead of Nutmeg sprinkled on a cappuccino or vanilla ice cream.  You can even make Mace tea.  Add several blades to boiling water, cover and steep for 10 - 15 minutes.  Or you can add a blade or 2 to your favorite black, green or red tea.

Like Nutmeg, Mace also contains pinene, camphene and dipentene, so it has the same properties as Nutmeg… anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and so on. It aids in digestion, enhances appetite, boosts blood circulation, improves dental health, protects the kidneys, improves immunity, and helps treat cold and cough.

Mace Essential Oil, like the spice, is similar to Nutmeg Essential Oil.  Analgesic, antiseptic, anti-inflammatory, carminative, antispasmodic and antirheumatic properties are included in its list of properties.  It helps with digestive issues, muscle pain, arthritis pain, colds, congestion, cough, throat issues, etc.  It is used as a fragrance additive in men’s cologne and aftershave.  Mace Essential Oil is great to add to your favorite massage oil, because it not only helps ease muscle fatigue, it also helps calm and relax. 

Most people think Allspice is a combination of other spices.  I admit, I did.  But, it’s not.  It’s not even a spice, not technically.  It’s actually a berry from the Myrtle Pepper Tree, or Pimento, native to Jamaica and much of Central America, and is sometimes called Jamaica Pepper.  The unripened berries are briefly fermented, then sundried.  You can purchase the whole berries, or most commonly, ground.  It gets its name from the fact that it tastes like black pepper, cinnamon, clove and nutmeg mixed together.  Actually, if a recipe calls for those 4 spices, and you don’t have all of them, you can substitute with the allspice, and vice versa.  Like Bay Leaves and Mace Blades, whole Allspice Berries are great in slow cooking recipes like stews…just remember to remove them before serving; for mulling wine; making apple cider and pickling brine.  Allspice is used a lot in Jamaican, Caribbean, Latin American and Middle Eastern cuisines.  Ground is best in desserts and baked goods.  While you can store ground Allspice for 2-4 years in an airtight glass container kept in a cool dark space, it does lose its flavor quickly.  Whole berries can be kept indefinitely, and will pretty much hold their own.  

Allspice contains eugenol, which is also found in Cinnamon and Holy Basil, which I’ve already discussed, and is also found in Pepper (which I only really touched on in the Capsaicin episode) and Clove; and gallic acid, also found in Ginger.  If you’ll recall, these two compounds, among other properties, have anti-tumor and anti-cancer properties where they have been proven to kill cancer cells.

Other properties of Allspice are antibacterial, hypotensive, anti-neuralgic and analgesic.  So, it also helps kill germs, lower blood pressure, relieve pain and fight against neurologic disorders like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.  

According to an article I found on the National Library of Medicine website at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3891794/, non-medicinal uses of Allspice include,  QUOTE:  “Whole or powdered Allspice is sold in the grocery stores throughout the world and is used in the cuisines of Middle East and Central America as well in European pastries. In Caribbean cuisines, Allspice is the most important spice and used extensively, it’s used in Jamaican jerk seasoning, in mole sauces and pickling. The meats that are seasoned with Allspice are then cooked over a P. dioica wood fire. Jamaicans also soak the berries in rum to make a special liqueur. In other countries Allspice is used mostly in baking desserts such as pumpkin pies, banana bread spice cake, bread pudding and gingerbread. In the British isles, Allspice is added in stews, sauces and for flavoring pickled vegetables.

The essential oil extracted from Allspice have typical aroma of a combination of pepper, nutmeg, clove and cinnamon. The scented oil from Allspice have been used in perfumery, candle making and in other cosmetic manufacturing. Similarly, scents extracted from fresh or dried leaves of Pimenta are also known to impart stimulating effect with the mildly spicy aroma. In recent years, in societies’ drive for natural alternatives to pesticides and fungicides, the extracts of Pimenta leaves have been used as food fumigant to preserve freshness and sterility of meat and poultry products. In similar areas where synthetic pesticides are used like the wood protection and plant disease treatments, Allspice essential oils also have been substituted as a natural alternate for pesticides and fungicide.”  END QUOTE.  

This article also notes the following on medicinal uses for Allspice:  QUOTE “In Caribbean, there is a long history of using Allspice berries for folk healing. Jamaicans also drink hot tea with Allspice for colds, dysmenorrhea (menstrual cramps) and dyspepsia (upset stomach). Costa Ricans are known to use Allspice to treat dyspepsia and diabetes. Guatemalans are known to apply crushed Allspice berries to bruises, sore joints and for myalgia (muscle ache). In Cuban medicine, Allspice along with other herbal mixtures is used to relieve indigestion. Not only used in the areas where Allspice originated from, its use has been incorporated in the Indian traditional medicine, the Ayurveda.” END QUOTE

Allspice Essential Oil properties include anesthetic, analgesic, anti-oxidant, antiseptic, carminative, relaxant, rubefacient (external application that causes redness to the skin), stimulant as well as tonic.  So, it reduces pain, clears the skin, guards against infections, relieves gastrointestinal issues, is calming, gets the blood circulating under the skin to give you a rosy look and aids your immune system, among other benefits.  If you listen to every episode, you should be able to start recognizing these benefits by the properties.  As I mentioned in the first few episodes, a lot of these benefits overlap, and you have a broad selection to help with specific issues.  Which one you use all depends on you.  Your likes, dislikes, allergies.  One size does not fit all, and you have a plethora of options.

These essential oils aren’t on the top of the aromatherapy list, but if you like them, you can use them that way.  You can also substitute them for other oils I use in some of my health and beauty recipes, like body butter, shampoo etc.  Remember, you can create your own concoctions, too.  

Using spices is a great way to flavor your dishes without adding sugar or calories, not just around the holidays, but all year long.

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