GRANA PARADISI. 



G53 



T 



English voyagers visited the Gold Coast in the IGth century, bring- 

 ing thence in exchanging for European goods, gold, ivory, pepper, and 



(p 



>/ 



The pepper was doubtless that of Piper Clusii 



Grains of paradise, often called simply grains, were anciently used 

 as a condiment like pepper. They were also employed with cinnamon 

 and ginger in making the spiced wine called hippocras^ in vogue during 

 the 14th and 15th centuries. 



In the Portuguese and Spanish idioms, the name Melcgueta, spelt 

 in various ways, as Melegette, Melligetta, Mallaguetta, Manigete, Mani- 

 guette, was subsequently also applied to other substitutes of pepper, 

 and even to that spice itself. 



In the hands of modern botanists, the plant affording grains of 

 paradise has been the subject of a complication of errors which it is 

 needless to discuss. Suffice it to say, that Amomum Granum Paradisi 

 as described by LinnjBus cannot be identified ;— that in 1817, Afzelius, 

 a Swedish botanist, who resided some years at Sierra Leone, published 

 a description of "Amomum Granum Paradisi! Linn.,"^ but that the 

 specimen of it alleged to have been received from him, and now pre- 

 served in the herbarium of Sir J. E. Smith, belongs to another species. 

 Under these circumstances, the name given to the grains of paradise 

 plant by Roscoe, A. Melec/ueta, has been accepted as quite free from 

 doubt.^ 



Description— The seeds are about xV of an inch in diameter, rather 



pyraniK 



They are hard, with a shining, reddish-brown, shagreen-like surface. 

 The hilum is beak-shaped and of paler colour. The seeds when crushed 

 are feebly aromatic, but have a most pungent and burning taste. 



In structure, grains of paradise agree in 



M 



most respects with cardamom seeds. Yet in the former, the cells of the 

 albumen have very thin, delicate walls which are much more elongated. 

 Of the testa, only the innermost layer agrees with the corresponding 

 part of cardamom ; whilst the middle layer has the cell walls so much 

 thickened that only a few cavities, widely distant from one another 

 remain open. The outer layer of the testa consists of thick-walled 

 cells, the cavities of which appear, on transverse section, radially ex- 

 tended. The albumen is loaded with starch granules of 2 to 5 mkm. 

 diameter, the whole amount in each cell being agglutinated, so as to 

 lorm a coherent mass. 



Chemical Composition— Grains of paradise contain a small pro- 

 portion of essential oil: 53 lb. yielded us only 2^ oz., equivalent to 

 • nearly 0:30 per cent.^ The oil is faintly yellowish, neutral, ot an 

 agreeable odour remindin ■• one of the seeds, and of an aromatic, not 

 acrid taste. It has a sp. |r. at 15-5° C, of 0-825. It is but sparingly 

 soluble in absolute alcohol or in spirit of wine ; but mixes clearly with 



' Hatl 



xiakiuyt, Principal JVavigations, ii. pt. 

 tA n "^^ ^^oiage of the Primerose and Lion 

 to Uuinea and Benin, a. P. 1553. 



^^emedia Ouinetnsia, Uusalije, p. 71. 

 n7,^f r ^ repeatedly raised Amomum Mele- 

 an 1 1 ™ commercial Grains of Paradise, 



"^ have cultivated the plant for some 



years, obtaining not only flowers, but large 

 well-ripened fruits containing fertde seeds. 



''This oil was obtained and tried in 

 medicine in the beginning of the l/tli ceu- 

 tiiry.— Porta, i)e DliUllaiione, Eomie, 1608, 



lib. iv. c. 4. 



