GRAINS OF PARADISE, GUINEA GRAINS, or MELEGUETA PEPPER (Ger. Paradieskorner, Fr. graines de Paradis, maniguette)

This article appears in Volume V12, Page 322 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: GOA-GRA

GRAINS OF PARADISE, GUINEA GRAINS, or MELEGUETA PEPPER (Ger. Paradieskorner, Fr. graines de Paradis, maniguette) , the seeds of Amomum Melegueta, a reed-like plant of the natural order Zingiberaceae. It is a native of tropical western Africa, and of Prince's and St

Thomas

's islands in the Gulf of

Guinea

GUINEA

, is cultivated in other tropical countries, and may with ease be grown in hothouses in temperate climates. The plant has a branched

horizontal

HORIZONTAL

rhizome; smooth, nearly sessile, narrowly lanceolate-oblong alternate leaves; large, white,

pale

PALE (through Fr. pal, from Lat. palms, a stake, for paglus, from the stem pag- of pangere, to fix; " pole " is from the same original source)

pink

PINK

or purplish

flowers

FLOWERS, ARTIFICIAL

; and an ovate-oblong fruit, ensheathed in bracts, which is of a scarlet colour when fresh, and reaches under cultivation a length of 5 in. The seeds are contained in the acid pulp of the fruit, are commonly wedge-shaped and bluntly angular, are about 14 lines in

diameter

DIAMETER (from the Cr. &a, through, µErpov, measure)

and have a glossy dark-brown husk, with a conical light-coloured membranous caruncle at the base and a white kernel. They contain, according to Fluckiger and Hanhury, 0'3% of a faintly yellowish neutral essential oil, having an aromatic, not acrid taste, and a specific gravity at 15.5 C. of o825, and giving on analysis the

formula

C20H320, or C10H16+C10H16O; also 5.83 % of an intensely pungent, viscid, brown resin.
Grains of paradise were formerly officinal in British pharmacopoeias, and in the 13th and succeeding centuries were used as a drug and a spice, the wine known as hippocras being flavoured with them and with ginger and cinnamon. In 1629 they were employed among the ingredients of the twenty-four herring pies which were the ancient fee-favour of the city of Norwich, ordained to be carried to court by the lord of the manor of Carleton (Johnston and Church, Chem. of Common Life, p. 355, 1879). Grains of paradise were anciently brought overland from West Africa to the Mediterranean ports of the Barbary states, to be shipped for Italy. They are now exported almost exclusively from the Gold Coast. Grains of paradise are to some extent used illegally to give a fictitious strength to malt liquors, gin and cordials. By 56 Geo. III. c. 58, no brewer or dealer in beer shall have in his possession or use grains of paradise, under a penalty of 200 for each offence; and no druggist shallsell the same to a brewer under a penalty of 500. They are, however, devoid of any injurious physiological action, and are much esteemed as a spice by the natives of

Guinea

GUINEA

.
See

Bentley

BENTLEY, RICHARD (1662-1742)
BENTLEY, RICHARD (1794-1871)

.and Trimen, Medicinal Plants, tab. 268;

Lanessan

LANESSAN, JEAN MARIE ANTOINE DE (1843– )

, Hist. des Drogues, pp. 456-46o (1878).

End of Article: GRAINS OF PARADISE, GUINEA GRAINS, or MELEGUETA PEPPER (Ger. Paradieskorner, Fr. graines de Paradis, maniguette)

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