Spices

19 January 2023 ecosostenibile

Spices

The term spices refers to aromatic substances of vegetable origin (such as pepper, ginger, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg etc.) used, as well as to flavor and flavor foods and drinks, also, especially in the past, in medicine and in pharmacies.
The history of spices is also linked to the ups and downs of peoples, nations, markets.
Already in Genesis (Old Testament), Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers to spice merchants. In the biblical poem Song of Songs, the narrator compares his beloved with different spices.
The Greeks and Romans made extensive use of spices which came mostly from the Far East or from the Mediterranean coastal regions where, at the time of the Babylonian, Assyrian and Egyptian empires, they were used extensively.
The maximum use was in the imperial age for cooking, in wines, in medicine, in cosmetics, in the worship of both the gods and the dead etc.
Since the 7th century, spices have been among the products that Syrian and Jewish merchants brought to Marseille by sea and spread to north-western Europe. The same trade was then exercised by the merchants of Comacchio, and at least since the beginning of the 9th century by the Venetians.
Arriving in the Middle Ages, the demand for spices grew a lot, so much so that it was greater than today. In fact these were used a lot in the kitchen but also for the important place in therapy and in the pharmacy.
The importance that spices took on in the trade is demonstrated by the fact that it was reserved for large merchant-bankers and that spices sometimes continued to be used as a means of payment.
Especially with the great journeys and with the discovery of the new world, spices became even more important, such as following the foundation of the Portuguese colonies on the coasts of India.
Soon the Portuguese crown reserved the monopoly of all spices, creating their own farm in Antwerp for the sale of most of them.
It was not until the 17th century that spices began to lose the dominant position they had in the great international traffic between tropical and temperate countries.
This condition was linked to the rise in consumption and therefore in the sugar trade, and, after some time, cocoa, coffee, dyeing materials, textiles and precious woods.
Nowadays, spices are used mainly for seasoning food, to enhance its flavor and improve its palatability, even if, in recent years, interest in the therapeutic, medicinal and antimicrobial properties of spices has been growing.
Furthermore, it is recalled that many of these substances also have other uses, such as in the use of food preservation, in some religious rituals, cosmetics or perfumery.
Below is a list of spices with a subdivision linked to their use and / or consumption.

Spices used mainly dried –
Dill
Star anise
Green anise
Annatto
Cinnamon
Cardamom (black cardamom, green cardamom)
Safflower
Radhuni
Caraway
Cloves
Coriander
Cubeb
Black cumin
Cumin
Turmeric
Fenugreek
Juniper
Galangal
Licorice
Mace
Black caraway (also erroneously called Black Cumin)