CHAPTER IV. 
FLAVORING AND BEVERAGE PLANTS 
51. Food-adjuncts. If by “food”? we mean whatever is 
eaten to supply the building materials or energy needed by 
the body, it must follow that much of what is eaten is not 
food. Various substances, such as pepper, sage, caraway, 
horseradish, and vanilla, or beverages, like tea or wine, are 
taken with food for an entirely different purpose; namely, 
for their flavor or stimulating effect, and scarcely, if at all, 
as nutriment. Such materials may be distinguished, there- 
fore, as food-adjuncts. The flavoring materials included un- 
der this head may be conveniently grouped as spices, savory 
herbs, savory seeds, miscellaneous condiments, and essences. 
52. Spices are aromatic substances derived from hard or 
hardened parts of plants and used commonly in a pulverized 
state. For example, cloves (Fig. 122) are flower buds hard- 
ened by drying; allspice (Fig. 123), black pepper (Fig. 124), 
and red pepper (Figs. 125, 126) are dried berry-like fruits; 
mustard (Figs. 127, 128) is a seed; nutmeg (Fig. 129) is 
also a seed, and mace the fleshy network (dried) which sur- 
rounds it; cinnamon (Fig. 130) is the young bark of a tree; 
while ginger (Fig. 131) is a root-like stem which grows under 
ground. 
The peculiar aroma of a spice is in general due to the pres- 
ence of a volatile oil. Volatile oils bear a certain resemblance 
to the fixed oils, but differ from them in that they evaporate 
when exposed to the air, leave no greasy stain on paper, and 
all dissolve readily in cold aleohol. On account of the volatile 
nature of their flavoring constituent spices lose aroma when 
exposed to the air, especially after they have been ground. 
Advantage is often taken. of the ready evaporation of vola- 
tile oils to separate them by distillation. This process is essen- 
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