PIMENTO OR ALLSPICE 203 



OTHER USES 



The allspice is chiefly used for flavouring con- 

 fectionery, pickles, and other such foods. The ripe fruits 

 are used to make a native drink known as " pimento 

 dram." 



Allspice is used in medicine as an aromatic, in 

 the form of pimento-oil or a distilled water Aqua 

 Pimentae. It is administered for flatulency, or for 

 overcoming griping in purgatives, and locally in rheu- 

 matism and neuralgia. 



Oil of pimento is a yellow to brownish oil con- 

 taining eugenol, and with practically the same qualities 

 as clove oil. The berries contain 3 to 4^ per cent of 

 oil, which sells at about 6s. a pound. 



Most of the oil is contained in the pericarp, but the 

 seeds are also aromatic. 



PIMENTO STICKS 



In Jamaica, saplings of pimento were so highly 

 valued as walking-sticks and for umbrella-sticks that 

 some alarm was felt lest the dealers in sticks should 

 uproot all the young trees. An article in the Scientific 

 American, quoted by Bernays in Cultural Industries 

 of Queensland, says that in that year half a million 

 of umbrella-sticks were awaiting export at Kingston, 

 Jamaica, to England and the United States, all or 

 almost all being pimento. The average returns for five 

 years showed that 2,000 bundles of sticks were exported 

 from Jamaica annually, and the first three-quarters of 

 1881 showed an export of over 4,500 bundles, valued 

 at 15,000 dollars. The bundles contained 50 sticks each. 

 These sticks were valued at from l^d. to 3|d. each. 



Espeut (Timbers of Jamaica), after referring to the 

 destruction caused by the stick gatherers, urges planting 

 pimento for the stick trade. He estimates that an acre 

 planted for sticks would yield 300 in five years. 



