180 SEEDS 



by the number (65, 80, 110, &c.) required to make up a pound weight. 

 Some of these are sold without further treatment, but many are 

 limed (or re-limed), limed nutmegs being preferred in Holland and 

 in the United States. The damaged nutmegs are sold for the produc- 

 tion of the volatile and expressed oil. 



Description. Nutmegs are broadly ovoid in shape and about 2-5 cm. 

 in length ; they are usually of a greyish brown colour and marked 

 with shallow reticulate furrows. The hilum lies in a little circular 

 depression surrounded by a raised ring, and from it the raphe can 

 usually be traced in a furrow extending to the chalaza at the apex. 

 When examined with a powerful lens the surface is seen to be very 

 finely pitted and marked with minute reddish points and larger 

 dark reddish brown lines and irregularly elongated spots. The 

 section exhibits dark, reddish brown, wavy lines alternating with 

 pale brownish or greyish interspaces. The greater portion of the 

 nutmeg consists of the ruminated albumen, the ruminations being 

 produced by the infolding of part of the perisperm and deposition in 

 its cells of dark colouring matter. These infoldings occur near the 

 fibro- vascular bundles, and produce the depressed lines on the surface 

 of the nutmeg corresponding to the branching bundles. 



The cut surface easily yields oil when indented with the nail. The 

 odour is strong and aromatic, the taste aromatic and bitterish. 



Constituents. The chief constituents of nutmegs are volatile 

 oil (8 to 15 per cent.) and solid fat (about 40 per cent.) ; they contain 

 in addition as reserve material amylodextrin, a substance intermediate 

 between starch and dextrin. 



The volatile oil (sp. gr. 0-870 to 0-925; O.K. + 13 to -f 30) 

 consists chiefly of terpenes together with myristicin which possesses 

 an intense odour of mace and passes over in the last portions of the 

 distillate. 



Expressed oil of nutmeg is a yellowish, very aromatic solid, melting at 

 25 to 43>, obtained from imperfect or broken nutmegs by hot pressure ; it 

 contains about 12 per cent, of the volatile oil together with the glycerides of 

 myristic, palmitic, and oleic acids. 



Amylodextrin occurs in granules of irregular shape which are coloured reddish 

 brown by iodine (distinction from starch) ; it can be obtained in a crystalline 

 form, and appears to be an intermediate product between starch and maltose 

 (or dextrose). 



Myristicin, C n H 12 O 3 , is crystalline and toxic ; it is more easily absorbed in 

 the presence of the other constituents of nutmegs and is less toxic to lower 

 animals than to human beings. 



Varieties. Penang nutmegs are broadly ovoid and very aromatic. 

 Singapore nutmegs are more deeply and minutely wrinkled and 

 frequently show marks of scorching. 



