Spices · Agriculture · 12 min read

Nutmeg and Mace: Two Spices from One Fruit

Once worth more than gold and traded for Manhattan, nutmeg now grows in the gardens of central Kerala and the foothills of Idukki. How nutmeg and mace are grown, harvested, dried, graded and used, with their nutrition and place in Ayurveda.

By GK Global, Adimali, Munnar · Trails & Tales by GK

Split open a ripe nutmeg fruit and you find a small treasure: a glossy brown seed wrapped in a lace of brilliant scarlet. The seed gives nutmeg; the lace, dried, is mace. Two spices from one fruit, once worth more than their weight in gold, now grow in the gardens of central Kerala. Nutmeg trees shade homesteads and plantations from the Ernakulam and Thrissur lowlands up into the foothills of Idukki, around Thodupuzha, Adimali and Kumily.

A spice worth fighting for

For centuries, nutmeg grew only on a handful of tiny islands, the Bandas, and reached Europe through Arab and Venetian traders at fabulous prices. In the 17th century the Dutch East India Company seized the Banda Islands by force to control the trade. In 1667, under the Treaty of Breda, the English gave up their claim to Run, a tiny nutmeg island in the Bandas, and the Dutch in return confirmed English possession of Manhattan, then called New Amsterdam. The monopoly was broken when the French and British smuggled seedlings to their own colonies. The British introduced nutmeg to India in the early 19th century, and it spread from spice gardens into the farms of Kerala, where the warm, humid climate suited it perfectly.

The tree

The nutmeg tree grows 10 to 20 m tall, with dark, glossy, aromatic leaves. Most nutmeg trees are either male or female, and only female trees bear fruit. Seedlings cannot be sexed until they flower after six to eight years, so growers today plant grafted or budded plants taken from proven high-yielding female trees, with a few male trees for pollination. Improved varieties include IISR Viswashree and Keralasree, and Kerala farmers have selected their own high-yielding trees. A grafted tree begins bearing in about 5 to 6 years and can crop for 60 years or more, giving from a few hundred to a few thousand fruits a year.

From planting to harvest

• Climate and soil: nutmeg needs a warm, humid climate, 1,500 mm or more of rain and deep, well-drained soil rich in organic matter. It grows from sea level to about 1,300 m and likes partial shade when young.
• Planting: grafts are planted at the start of the monsoon, about 8 to 9 m apart, often among coconut, arecanut or other trees for shade.
• Care: mulching, manuring, irrigation in the dry season, and protection from leaf spot, die-back and fruit rot.
• Harvest: the fruit, like a small yellow apricot, ripens about 9 months after flowering and splits open when ripe, showing the red mace. Fruits are gathered from the tree or the ground. In Kerala, the main crop comes in June to August, with smaller pickings through the year.

Processing: nutmeg and mace

• Separating: the fleshy outer fruit (pericarp) is removed and the red mace is carefully peeled off the seed.
• Mace: the mace is flattened and dried in the sun or in a drier for several days. As it dries it changes from scarlet to orange-red and finally to an orange-yellow or golden colour; slow drying in the shade gives the best colour.
• Nutmeg: the seeds, still in their hard shells, are dried slowly in the sun or over gentle heat for 4 to 8 weeks, until the kernel shrinks inside the shell and rattles when shaken. The shells are then cracked and the kernels taken out.
• Moisture: both spices are dried to about 8 to 10 percent moisture and stored dry, since damp nutmeg grows moulds.
• By-products: the fleshy pericarp, about 80 percent of the fruit, is made into pickles, jams, candies, squash and wine.

Sorting and grading

Nutmeg is sold in the shell or shelled. Shelled nutmegs are graded by size, expressed as the number of nuts per kilogram or per pound (fewer nuts per kilo means bigger nuts), and by soundness. "Sound" nutmegs are whole and free of insect damage; damaged nuts are sold as BWP ("broken, wormy and punky") for grinding and oil distillation. Mace is graded by colour and wholeness: whole bright blades command the highest price, and broken pieces are sold separately. Kerala's nutmeg is traded through local dealers and markets in towns such as Thodupuzha, Muvattupuzha, Kalady and Chalakudy, and through farmers' societies.

Markets and exports

Most of India's nutmeg and mace is consumed at home, in garam masala, sweets and Ayurvedic medicines, but India also exports nutmeg, mace and their essential oils and oleoresins to the Middle East, Europe and the United States, and imports from Indonesia and Sri Lanka when needed. Prices have swung widely, and farmers in Kerala have organised societies to grade and sell their crop collectively.

Nutrition

Approximate values; source: USDA FoodData Central. Spices are eaten in small amounts, so a typical serving supplies only a small share of these nutrients.

Nutmeg's aroma comes from an essential oil (about 5 to 15 percent of the kernel) containing sabinene, pinenes, myristicin and elemicin. Mace has a similar but more delicate flavour.

A word of caution: nutmeg is safe in the small amounts used in cooking, but large amounts, such as a whole nutmeg or more eaten at once, can cause poisoning because of myristicin, with nausea, rapid heartbeat and confusion. Keep it away from children.

Nutmeg in Ayurveda

In Ayurveda, nutmeg is Jatiphala and mace Jatipatri. They are described as pungent, bitter and heating, and are traditionally used in small doses to aid digestion, check diarrhoea, relieve gas and promote sleep, and in preparations for toothache and skin. Jatiphaladi churna is a classical preparation.

These are traditional uses. Spices are safe in normal food amounts; anyone thinking of using them as medicine, especially in pregnancy, while taking other medicines or for a child, should ask a qualified doctor.

Uses

• Kitchen: a pinch grated into payasam, puddings, eggnog, cakes, biryani and garam masala; mace in Mughlai and European dishes, sauces and sausages.
• Food industry: nutmeg and mace oils and oleoresins flavour baked goods, meats, soft drinks and confectionery.
• Perfumery and cosmetics: nutmeg oil in perfumes, soaps and toiletries; nutmeg butter, pressed from the nuts, in ointments and cosmetics.
• Pharmaceuticals: in Ayurvedic and other traditional medicines and balms.
• From the fruit: nutmeg rind pickle, jam, candy and juice, popular products of Kerala's homesteads.