PIMENTO 103 



Description. Black chebulic myrobalans are dark brown or nearly 

 black in colour, ovoid or fusiform in shape and from 10 to 30 mm. or 

 more in length and 5 to 15 mm. in width ; they are much shrivelled 

 longitudinally, hard and brittle ; the fracture is dark and shiny and 

 in the centre there is often a small cavity ; they have no odour but a 

 very astringent taste. 



Constituents. The fruits contain from 20 to 30 per cent, of a 

 mixture of gallic acid and tannic acid, apparently derived from an 

 organic acid, chebulinic acid ; they contain also a greenish oleo-resin 

 which has been termed myrobalanin. 



-Notwithstanding the large proportion of tannin they contain 

 black chebulic myrobalans, taken internally, act as an efficient pur- 

 gative. They are also used externally as an astringent in the place 

 of galls. 



Note. Commercial myrobalans are the fruits collected when about the size 

 of a walnut and dried ; they are oval, pointed at each end, brownish or greenish 

 yellow in colour and ribbed. They contain about 40 per cent, of tannin and 

 are imported in large quantities for use in tanneries. 



PIMENTO 



(Allspice,, Jamaica Pepper, Fructus Pimentae) 



Source, &C. The pimento tree, Pimento, officinalis, Lindley (N.O. 

 Myrtacece), is a handsome tree indigenous to and common in the 

 West Indies, and found also in Central America and Venezuela. It 

 is cultivated, especially in Jamaica, in plantations known as pimento 

 walks. 



The tree bears large panicles of fragrant, white flowers with two- 

 celled inferior ovaries, each cell containing a single ovule. The 

 flowers are succeeded by small fruits ; as soon as these have attained 

 their full size, but before they ripen, the whole panicle is collected 

 and dried in the sun, during which the green colour changes to a 

 reddish brown. The stalks are then separated and the fruits are 

 ready for packing. Had they been allowed to ripen they would have 

 become dark purple and filled with a sweet pulp, but would have 

 lost much of their aroma ; hence they are collected whilst unripe. 



Pimento berries appear to have been long known to the Mexicans, 

 who used them, together with vanilla, for flavouring chocolate ; 

 through them the Spaniards became acquainted with the spice towards 

 the end of the sixteenth century, and introduced it into Europe, where 

 great quantities were consumed. It was supposed to possess the 

 combined flavour of cloves and other spices ; hence its name of 

 ' allspice.' It is also called Jamaica pepper. 



