The furrows on the surface of the nutty seeds are filled with a white mass which consists of lime, in which the nuts have been laid after drying in order to protect them from the attack of insects. The aromatic constituent of nutmeg and of mace is also an ethereal oil. The seeds contain 8-15 percent of ethereal oil with 25 percent of a fatty oil; mace contains 4-15 percent of ethereal oil and 18 percent. of fatty oil. As both spices occur in commerce in whole pieces, adulteration is not to be feared.
Of these there are two kinds on the market:
1. The small or Malabar cardamoms. 2. The long or Ceylon cardamoms.
Both are the fruit, although very different in form, of a species of the ginger plants which is indigenous to Ceylon and Malabar.
The Malabar cardamom is three cornered oblong and about 1 cm in size. In the fine brown pericarps are enclosed, adhering together, 6-8 angular seeds, 3 mm in size, having a pungent aromatic taste.
The Ceylon cardamom is four times larger than the Malabar kind. The grey brown pericarp encloses about 20 dark greyish brown seeds about 6 mm large. The aroma of the Ceylon cardamom is due to an ethereal oil which it contains in quantities sometimes reaching 6 percent. Madras and Malabar cardamoms contain 4-8 percent of ethereal oil. As the Ceylon cardamoms are cheaper than the Malabar kind a confusion of the two seeds might possibly be to the disadvantage of the buyer, but the above description of their relative size would suffice to distinguish them.
Exact accounts of the characteristic properties, the chemical and microscopical investigation as well as of the impurities and adulterations of the materials previously mentioned as being used in cacao preparations are to be found in volume II of the “Vereinbarungen zur einheitlichen Untersuchung und Beurteilung von Nahrungs-und Genußmittel sowie Gebrauchsgegenständen für das Deutsche Reich”[158] to which those who desire further to investigate this subject are referred.
As previously remarked in the case of vanillin, it is becoming more and more the custom to substitute perfume substances for powdered spices. This practice is quite justified since the entire perfume of a spice is made use of and the worthless woody and indigestible fibre is thus excluded from the finished preparation.