"Guinea grains" redirects here. For Guinea pepper, see Grains of Selim. For Guinea cubeb pepper, see Ashanti pepper.
"Melegueta pepper" redirects here. For the similarly named chili pepper, see Malagueta pepper.
A request that this article title be changed to Grains of paradise is under discussion. Please do not move this article until the discussion is closed.
Aframomum melegueta is a species in the ginger family, Zingiberaceae, and closely related to cardamom. Its seeds are used as a spice (ground or whole); it imparts a pungent, black-pepper-like flavor with hints of citrus. It is commonly known as grains of paradise, melegueta pepper, Guinea grains, ossame, or fom wisa, and is confused with alligator pepper. The term Guinea pepper has also been used, but is most often applied to Xylopia aethiopica (grains of Selim).
Aframomum melegueta is an herbaceousperennial plant native to swampy habitats along the West African coast. Its trumpet-shaped, purple flowers develop into pods 5–7 cm (2–3 in) long, containing numerous small, reddish-brown seeds.
The pungent, peppery taste of the seeds is caused by aromaticketones, such as (6)-paradol (systematic name: 1-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl)-decan-3-one). Essential oils, which are the dominating flavor components in the closely related cardamom,[3] occur only in traces.
The stem at times can be short, and usually shows signs of scars and dropped leaves. The leaves are narrow and similar to those of bamboo, with a well-structured vascular system. The flowers of the herbaceous plant are aromatic, with an orange-colored lip and rich pinkish-orange upper part. The fruits contain numerous, small, golden red-brown seeds.
Melegueta pepper is commonly used in the cuisines of West and North Africa, from where it has been traditionally transported by camel caravan routes through the Sahara desert and distributed to Sicily and the rest of Italy. Mentioned by Pliny as "African pepper" but subsequently forgotten in Europe, they were renamed "grains of paradise" and became a popular substitute for black pepper in Europe in the 14th and 15th centuries.[4][5][6] The Ménagier de Paris recommends it for improving wine that "smells stale". Through the Middle Ages and into the early modern period, the theory of the four humors governed theories about nourishment on the part of doctors, herbalists, and druggists. In this context, John Russell characterized grains of paradise in The Boke of Nurture as "hot and moist".[7]
In 1469, King Afonso V of Portugal granted the monopoly of trade in the Gulf of Guinea to Lisbon merchant Fernão Gomes.[8] This included the exclusivity in trade of Aframomum melegueta, then called malagueta pepper. The grant came at the cost of 100,000 real annually and agreement to explore 160 kilometres (100 mi) of the coast of Africa per year for five years; this gives some indication of the European value of the spice.[9] After Christopher Columbus reached the New World in 1492 and brought the first samples of the chili pepper (Capsicum frutescens) back with him to Europe, the name malagueta, and Spanish and Portuguese spelling, was then applied to the new chili "pepper" because its piquancy was reminiscent of grains of paradise.[5] Malagueta, thanks to its low price, remained popular in Europe even after the Portuguese opened the direct maritime route to the Spice Islands around 1500.[10] This namesake, the malagueta chili, remains popular in Brazil, the Caribbean, Portugal, and Mozambique.
The importance of the A. melegueta spice is shown by the designation of the area from the St. John River (near present-day Buchanan) to Harper in Liberia as the Grain Coast or Pepper Coast in honor of the availability of grains of paradise.[11] Later, the craze for the spice waned, and its uses were reduced to a flavoring for sausages and beer. In the 18th century, its importation to Great Britain collapsed after a parliamentary act of George III forbade its use in alcoholic beverages.[12][page needed] In 1855, England imported about 6,800 to 8,600 kilograms (15,000 to 19,000 lb) per year legally (duty paid).[11] By 1880, the 9th edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica reported: "Grains of paradise are to some extent used in veterinary practice, but for the most part illegally to give a fictitious strength to malt liquors, gin, and cordials".[13]
The presence of the seeds in the diets of lowland gorillas in the wild seems to have some sort of beneficial effect on their cardiovascular health. They also eat the leaves, and use them for bedding material. The absence of the seeds in the diets of captive lowland gorillas may contribute to their occasionally poor cardiovascular health in zoos.[14][15]
Today the condiment is sometimes used in gourmet cuisine as a replacement for pepper, and to give unique flavor in some craft beers, gins, and Norwegian akvavit. Grains of paradise are starting to enjoy a slight resurgence in popularity in North America due to their use by some well-known chefs. Alton Brown is a fan of the condiment, and he uses it in okra stew and his apple-pie recipe on an episode of the TV cooking show Good Eats.[16] Grains of paradise are also used by people on certain diets, such as a raw food diet, because they are considered less irritating to digestion than black pepper.
Folk medicine and ritual usesEdit
In West African folk medicine, grains of paradise are valued for their warming and digestive properties, and among the Efik people in Nigeria have been used for divination and ordeals determining guilt.[17]A. melegueta has been introduced to the Caribbean and Latin America, where it is used in Voodoo religious rites.[18][19] It is also found widely among Protestant Christian practitioners of African-Americanhoodoo and rootwork, where the seeds are employed in luck-bringing and may be held in the mouth or chewed to prove sincerity.[20]
^"Southern Nations Nationalities and People’s Region (SNNPR) Livelihood Profiles: Regional Overview" 16 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine, FEWS Net (January 2005), p. 27 (accessed 18 May 2009)
^Tchatchouang, S.; Beng, V. P.; Kuete, V. (1 January 2017), Kuete, Victor (ed.), "Chapter 11 - Antiemetic African Medicinal Spices and Vegetables", Medicinal Spices and Vegetables from Africa, Academic Press, pp. 299–313, ISBN978-0-12-809286-6, retrieved 2 March 2021
^Grains of paradise are listed among the varieties of caradmom in the 25th ed. of the Dispensatory of the United States of America (1955) p. 257, as Paul E. Beichner notes in "The Grain of Paradise", Speculum, vol. 36, no. 2 (April 1961), p. 303. Beichner suggests the miraculous "greyn" of Chaucer's "The Prioress's Tale" was grains of paradise.
^Several medieval recipes are republished in Two Fifteenth-century Cookery-Books, Thomas Austin (ed,) Early English Texts Society, vol. 91 (1888) (cited in passing by Beichner 1961), under the names graynys of parise, graynis of parys, graynys of Perys, and simply graynis.
^ abDaniel F. Austin, "Florida ethnobotany", p. 170, CRC Press, 2004, ISBN0-8493-2332-0
^"Its popularity may have been due to the brilliant name thought up for it by some advertising genius born before his times" observes Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat, Anthea Bell (tr.), The History of Food, revised ed., 2009, p. 446.
^Noted, with other examples of fiery and watery grains of paradise, by Beichner 1961, p. 304, note 8; cardamom, with which it was often confused, as Cardamomum maius and Cardamomum minus, was reported by Dioscurides as hot and dry in its qualities, as recorded in the late 13th-century Herbal of Rufinus (Beichner, p. 305f).
^ (in Portuguese). Archived from the original on 3 December 2013. Retrieved 24 December 2006.
^Thorn, Rob. . Archived from the original on 11 February 2007. Retrieved 24 December 2006.
^Guidi Bruscoli, Francesco (2014) [c. 1450–1530)]. Bartolomeo Marchionni, "Homem de grossa fazenda". Firenze: Leo S. Olschki editore. pp. 92–93. ISBN9788822263001.
^ abLaurie's Sailing Directory for the Ethiopic or Southern Atlantic Ocean to the Rio de la Plata, Cape Horn, and the Cape of Good Hope etc., including the Islands between the two coasts; 4th ed., 1855
^Kup, Peter; A History of Sierra Leone, 1400–1787 (Cambridge University)
^Baynes, T. S.; Smith, W. R., eds. (1880). "Grains of Paradise" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 11 (9th ed.). New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
^"Gorilla diet protects heart: Grains of paradise". AskNature.org. Biomimicry Institute. 20 February 2012. Retrieved 18 April 2012.
^Dybas, Cheryl Lyn; Raskin, Ilya (photographer), "Out of Africa: A Tale of Gorillas, Heart Disease ... and a Swamp Plant" 1 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine, BioScience, vol. 57 (May 2007) pp. 392–397.
^Simmons, Donald C. (1956). "Efik Divination, Ordeals, and Omens". Southwestern Journal of Anthropology. 12 (2): 223–228. doi:10.1086/soutjanth.12.2.3629116. S2CID 163651830.
^Voeks, Robert (2013). "Ethnobotany of Brazil's African Diaspora: The Role of Floristic Homogenization". African Ethnobotany in the Americas. Springer. pp. 395–416. doi:10.1007/978-1-4614-0836-9_14. ISBN978-1-4614-0835-2.
^Moret, Erica S. (2013). "Trans-Atlantic Diaspora Ethnobotany: Legacies of West African and Iberian Mediterranean Migration in Central Cuba". African Ethnobotany in the Americas. Springer. pp. 217–245. doi:10.1007/978-1-4614-0836-9_9. ISBN978-1-4614-0835-2.
^Yronwode, Catherine (2002). Hoodoo Herb and Root Magic: A Materia Magica of African-American Conjure. Lucky Mojo. pp. 107–108. ISBN978-0-9719612-1-0.
External linksEdit
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Aframomum melegueta.
Gernot Katzer's Spice Pages
October 15, 2023
aframomum, melegueta, grains, paradise, redirects, here, album, erik, friedlander, grains, paradise, album, guinea, grains, redirects, here, guinea, pepper, grains, selim, guinea, cubeb, pepper, ashanti, pepper, melegueta, pepper, redirects, here, similarly, n. Grains of paradise redirects here For the album by Erik Friedlander see Grains of Paradise album Guinea grains redirects here For Guinea pepper see Grains of Selim For Guinea cubeb pepper see Ashanti pepper Melegueta pepper redirects here For the similarly named chili pepper see Malagueta pepper A request that this article title be changed to Grains of paradise is under discussion Please do not move this article until the discussion is closed Aframomum melegueta is a species in the ginger family Zingiberaceae and closely related to cardamom Its seeds are used as a spice ground or whole it imparts a pungent black pepper like flavor with hints of citrus It is commonly known as grains of paradise melegueta pepper Guinea grains ossame or fom wisa and is confused with alligator pepper The term Guinea pepper has also been used but is most often applied to Xylopia aethiopica grains of Selim Aframomum meleguetagrains of paradiseScientific classificationKingdom PlantaeClade TracheophytesClade AngiospermsClade MonocotsClade CommelinidsOrder ZingiberalesFamily ZingiberaceaeGenus AframomumSpecies A meleguetaBinomial nameAframomum meleguetaK Schum SynonymsAmomum meleguetaIt is native to West Africa which is sometimes named the Pepper Coast or Grain Coast because of this commodity It is also an important cash crop in the Basketo district of southern Ethiopia 1 2 Contents 1 Characteristics 2 Uses 3 Folk medicine and ritual uses 4 See also 5 References 6 External linksCharacteristics EditAframomum melegueta is an herbaceous perennial plant native to swampy habitats along the West African coast Its trumpet shaped purple flowers develop into pods 5 7 cm 2 3 in long containing numerous small reddish brown seeds The pungent peppery taste of the seeds is caused by aromatic ketones such as 6 paradol systematic name 1 4 hydroxy 3 methoxyphenyl decan 3 one Essential oils which are the dominating flavor components in the closely related cardamom 3 occur only in traces The stem at times can be short and usually shows signs of scars and dropped leaves The leaves are narrow and similar to those of bamboo with a well structured vascular system The flowers of the herbaceous plant are aromatic with an orange colored lip and rich pinkish orange upper part The fruits contain numerous small golden red brown seeds nbsp The seeds of Aframomum meleguetaUses Edit nbsp A melegueta pods at a market in Sao Joao dos Angolares Sao Tome Island Melegueta pepper is commonly used in the cuisines of West and North Africa from where it has been traditionally transported by camel caravan routes through the Sahara desert and distributed to Sicily and the rest of Italy Mentioned by Pliny as African pepper but subsequently forgotten in Europe they were renamed grains of paradise and became a popular substitute for black pepper in Europe in the 14th and 15th centuries 4 5 6 The Menagier de Paris recommends it for improving wine that smells stale Through the Middle Ages and into the early modern period the theory of the four humors governed theories about nourishment on the part of doctors herbalists and druggists In this context John Russell characterized grains of paradise in The Boke of Nurture as hot and moist 7 In 1469 King Afonso V of Portugal granted the monopoly of trade in the Gulf of Guinea to Lisbon merchant Fernao Gomes 8 This included the exclusivity in trade of Aframomum melegueta then called malagueta pepper The grant came at the cost of 100 000 real annually and agreement to explore 160 kilometres 100 mi of the coast of Africa per year for five years this gives some indication of the European value of the spice 9 After Christopher Columbus reached the New World in 1492 and brought the first samples of the chili pepper Capsicum frutescens back with him to Europe the name malagueta and Spanish and Portuguese spelling was then applied to the new chili pepper because its piquancy was reminiscent of grains of paradise 5 Malagueta thanks to its low price remained popular in Europe even after the Portuguese opened the direct maritime route to the Spice Islands around 1500 10 This namesake the malagueta chili remains popular in Brazil the Caribbean Portugal and Mozambique The importance of the A melegueta spice is shown by the designation of the area from the St John River near present day Buchanan to Harper in Liberia as the Grain Coast or Pepper Coast in honor of the availability of grains of paradise 11 Later the craze for the spice waned and its uses were reduced to a flavoring for sausages and beer In the 18th century its importation to Great Britain collapsed after a parliamentary act of George III forbade its use in alcoholic beverages 12 page needed In 1855 England imported about 6 800 to 8 600 kilograms 15 000 to 19 000 lb per year legally duty paid 11 By 1880 the 9th edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica reported Grains of paradise are to some extent used in veterinary practice but for the most part illegally to give a fictitious strength to malt liquors gin and cordials 13 The presence of the seeds in the diets of lowland gorillas in the wild seems to have some sort of beneficial effect on their cardiovascular health They also eat the leaves and use them for bedding material The absence of the seeds in the diets of captive lowland gorillas may contribute to their occasionally poor cardiovascular health in zoos 14 15 Today the condiment is sometimes used in gourmet cuisine as a replacement for pepper and to give unique flavor in some craft beers gins and Norwegian akvavit Grains of paradise are starting to enjoy a slight resurgence in popularity in North America due to their use by some well known chefs Alton Brown is a fan of the condiment and he uses it in okra stew and his apple pie recipe on an episode of the TV cooking show Good Eats 16 Grains of paradise are also used by people on certain diets such as a raw food diet because they are considered less irritating to digestion than black pepper Folk medicine and ritual uses EditIn West African folk medicine grains of paradise are valued for their warming and digestive properties and among the Efik people in Nigeria have been used for divination and ordeals determining guilt 17 A melegueta has been introduced to the Caribbean and Latin America where it is used in Voodoo religious rites 18 19 It is also found widely among Protestant Christian practitioners of African American hoodoo and rootwork where the seeds are employed in luck bringing and may be held in the mouth or chewed to prove sincerity 20 See also EditAframomum corrorima List of culinary herbs and spices PhytotherapyReferences Edit Southern Nations Nationalities and People s Region SNNPR Livelihood Profiles Regional Overview Archived 16 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine FEWS Net January 2005 p 27 accessed 18 May 2009 Tchatchouang S Beng V P Kuete V 1 January 2017 Kuete Victor ed Chapter 11 Antiemetic African Medicinal Spices and Vegetables Medicinal Spices and Vegetables from Africa Academic Press pp 299 313 ISBN 978 0 12 809286 6 retrieved 2 March 2021 Grains of paradise are listed among the varieties of caradmom in the 25th ed of the Dispensatory of the United States of America 1955 p 257 as Paul E Beichner notes in The Grain of Paradise Speculum vol 36 no 2 April 1961 p 303 Beichner suggests the miraculous greyn of Chaucer s The Prioress s Tale was grains of paradise Several medieval recipes are republished in Two Fifteenth century Cookery Books Thomas Austin ed Early English Texts Society vol 91 1888 cited in passing by Beichner 1961 under the names graynys of parise graynis of parys graynys of Perys and simply graynis a b Daniel F Austin Florida ethnobotany p 170 CRC Press 2004 ISBN 0 8493 2332 0 Its popularity may have been due to the brilliant name thought up for it by some advertising genius born before his times observes Maguelonne Toussaint Samat Anthea Bell tr The History of Food revised ed 2009 p 446 Noted with other examples of fiery and watery grains of paradise by Beichner 1961 p 304 note 8 cardamom with which it was often confused as Cardamomum maius and Cardamomum minus was reported by Dioscurides as hot and dry in its qualities as recorded in the late 13th century Herbal of Rufinus Beichner p 305f O Contrato de Fernao Gomes in Portuguese Archived from the original on 3 December 2013 Retrieved 24 December 2006 Thorn Rob Discoveries After Prince Henry Archived from the original on 11 February 2007 Retrieved 24 December 2006 Guidi Bruscoli Francesco 2014 c 1450 1530 Bartolomeo Marchionni Homem de grossa fazenda Firenze Leo S Olschki editore pp 92 93 ISBN 9788822263001 a b Laurie s Sailing Directory for the Ethiopic or Southern Atlantic Ocean to the Rio de la Plata Cape Horn and the Cape of Good Hope etc including the Islands between the two coasts 4th ed 1855 Kup Peter A History of Sierra Leone 1400 1787 Cambridge University Baynes T S Smith W R eds 1880 Grains of Paradise Encyclopaedia Britannica Vol 11 9th ed New York Charles Scribner s Sons Gorilla diet protects heart Grains of paradise AskNature org Biomimicry Institute 20 February 2012 Retrieved 18 April 2012 Dybas Cheryl Lyn Raskin Ilya photographer Out of Africa A Tale of Gorillas Heart Disease and a Swamp Plant Archived 1 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine BioScience vol 57 May 2007 pp 392 397 Brown Alton Apple of My Pie Good Eats season 11 episode 15 Simmons Donald C 1956 Efik Divination Ordeals and Omens Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 12 2 223 228 doi 10 1086 soutjanth 12 2 3629116 S2CID 163651830 Voeks Robert 2013 Ethnobotany of Brazil s African Diaspora The Role of Floristic Homogenization African Ethnobotany in the Americas Springer pp 395 416 doi 10 1007 978 1 4614 0836 9 14 ISBN 978 1 4614 0835 2 Moret Erica S 2013 Trans Atlantic Diaspora Ethnobotany Legacies of West African and Iberian Mediterranean Migration in Central Cuba African Ethnobotany in the Americas Springer pp 217 245 doi 10 1007 978 1 4614 0836 9 9 ISBN 978 1 4614 0835 2 Yronwode Catherine 2002 Hoodoo Herb and Root Magic A Materia Magica of African American Conjure Lucky Mojo pp 107 108 ISBN 978 0 9719612 1 0 External links Edit nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to Aframomum melegueta Gernot Katzer s Spice Pages Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Aframomum melegueta amp oldid 1179585787, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
