V 
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. 
