Nutmeg Oil

Botanical Name: Myristica fragrans 

Myristica fragrans is an evergreen tree, usually 5–15 m (16–49 ft) tall, but occasionally reaching 20 m (66 ft) or even 30 m (98 ft) on Tidore. The alternately arranged leaves are dark green, 5–15 cm (2.0–5.9 in) long by 2–7 cm (0.8–2.8 in) wide with petioles about 1 cm (0.4 in) long. The species is dioecious, i.e. "male" or staminate flowers, and "female" or carpellate flowers are borne on different plants, although occasional individuals produce both kinds of flowers. The flowers are bell-shaped, pale yellow, and somewhat waxy and fleshy. Staminate flowers are arranged in groups of one to ten, each 5–7 mm (0.2–0.3 in) long; carpellate flowers are in smaller groups, one to three, and somewhat longer, up to 10 mm (0.4 in) long. Carpellate trees produce smooth yellow ovoid or pear-shaped fruits, 6–9 cm (2.4–3.5 in) long with a diameter of 3.5–5 cm (1.4–2.0 in). The fruit has a fleshy husk. When ripe the husk splits into two halves along a ridge running the length of the fruit. Inside is a purple-brown shiny seed, 2–3 cm (0.8–1.2 in) long by about 2 cm (0.8 in) across, with a red or crimson covering (an aril). The seed is the source of nutmeg, the aril the source of mace.

Nutmeg Oil is produced in substantial quantities and there is ample supply of botanical material available for a further increase in production. In 1959, an estimated 60 metric tons of nutmeg and mace oils were produced with a value of far beyond the U.S. $ 1 million. This quantity, however, represents only a small fraction of the total world production of nutmeg and mace, both being used extensively as powdered spices. The production of nutmeg (whole, dry spice) in 1959 was estimated at 10,000 metric tons. The mace production was less than 800 tons. 

Myristica fragrans was given a binomial name by the Dutch botanist Maartyn Houttuyn in 1774. It had earlier been described by Georg Eberhard Rumphius, among others. The specific epithet fragrans means "fragrant".

Olfactive Description

Light, fresh, warm- spicy and aromatic odor, a distinctly terpeney top note, and a rich, sweet-spicy, warm body note. The undertone and dry out is somewhat woody but remains warm and sweet in good oils. There is some similarity to the odor of sweet marjoram oil. 

Specific character: spicy

Flavor

Nutmeg Oil (natural) is not a very powerful flavor material. The suggested use level is 1.50 to 3.00 mg% and the Minimum Perceptible is 0.50 to 1.00 mg% for the very best grades of East Indian nutmeg oil, European distilled. The figures for the terpeneless oil are slightly lower. This may be due to the water-insolubility of the terpenes (strong flavor effect) and the solubility of the oxygenated compounds in water to a certain extent (this fact is pictured in the lowering of the flavor strength). 

Where it Grows

It is widely grown across the tropics including Guangdong and Yunnan in China, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Grenada in the Caribbean,  Kerala in India, Sri Lanka, and South America.

Method of Extraction

Nutmeg Oil is produced by steam distillation or steam-and-water distillation of freshly comminuted, dried nutmegs. The nutmegs should preferably be free from most of their fixed oil* (e.g. by hydraulic expression) prior to distillation.

* The fixed oil can be alcohol- extracted to yield a small amount of essential oil which has been dissolved in the fixed oil during the expression. As a curiosity, it should be mentioned that nutmegs are favorite dishes of certain worms who eat away the fixed oil, but who leave the essential-oil-bearing tissue (which is probably poisonous to the worms!). Worm-eaten nutmegs are thus easier to distill, but they may—by their poor appearance—indirectly tell the buyer that they could be old and poorly stored nutmegs. 
The fixed oil is odorless and tasteless (mainly glyceryl myristate), and it may retain small amounts and significant fractions of the essential oil in solution or emulsion when the nutmegs are hydraulically expressed (see above). The production of nutmeg oil is thus not without problems for the distiller. Only recently, the nutmeg planters began to distill oil locally (West Indies, and now also Indonesia). However, considerable amounts of nutmeg oil are still produced in the U.S.A. and in Europe by specialists in the field who select the raw material for distillation, and who have generations of experience in the distillation of “troublesome” spices. The so-called “Padang” nutmegs from Indonesia are generally preferred for distillation in Europe.

How or when use it:

The oil has found increasing use in perfumery lately for the modern “spicy” perfumes and for “men’s fragrances” in after-shaves and other lotions. Small additions in fantasy bouquets or aldehydic perfumes, florals, chypres, etc., can have very interesting effects. Nutmeg oil blends well with amyl salicylate, oakmoss, bay leaf oil, linalool, lavandin oil, coumarin or deer tongue extract, methyl cinnamic aldehyde, Peru balsam oil, etc.

For flavor work, a terpeneless oil is generally preferred, although the best grades of natural oils have superior diffusive power and masking effect. The oil is used in food preparations in combination with other spices for meat sauces, etc. It is one of the major spice additives in the conventional type of tomato ketchup. The Terpeneless Nutmeg Oil is usually prepared by countercurrent solvent extraction since the monoterpenes in nutmeg oil are extremely sensitive to heat and tend to polymerize or produce ill-smelling compounds when they are exposed to dry distillation. The terpeneless oil is used in certain types of soft drink flavor, in spice blends for canned food, meat sauces, seasonings, etc.

Appareance

Nutmeg Oil is a pale yellow or almost water- white liquid

Impact

Top-note

Chemistry

Myristicin is a naturally occurring compound found in common herbs and spices, the most well known being nutmeg. It is an insecticide and has been shown to enhance the effectiveness of other insecticides in combination. Myristicin is also a precursor for amphetamine derivative compounds structurally related to MDMA; it is believed to be metabolized into MMDA in the body to produce hallucinogenic effects and can be converted to MMDMA in controlled chemical synthesis. It interacts with many enzymes and signaling pathways in the body is cytotoxic to living cells, and may also have chemoprotective properties.

Adulteration

Adulteration of Nutmeg Oil is performed with monoterpenes, e.g. myrcene, camphene, terpinolene, dipentene, pinene, etc., and with oil of melaleuca alternifolia, terpenes from the deterpenization of nutmeg oil, or with certain rare oils which contain a high amount of myristicin (Peruvian Clavel Moena leaf oil, etc.). Myristicin (= 1,2- methylenedioxy-6-methoxy-4-allylbenzene) is considered toxic, yet it is generally considered an important flavor ingredient. Myristicin is chemically related to safrole which possibly is present in nutmeg oil in traces. Safrole has been in the “limelight” of the health authorities in various countries, and it is very likely that safrole will be banned from use in flavors in the future. 

Mace

The dried finger-like, husk-like arillode which surrounds the nutmeg (seed) inside the shell of the fruit is known commercially as Mace. Perfumers no longer discriminate between the essential oil from mace and that from nutmeg. Dried, pulverized mace is another well-known household spice. With its better keeping qualities (absence of fixed oil which may become rancid in the comminuted nutmeg) it is more popular than the nutmeg. The masking power of the flavor of nutmeg or mace is excellently demonstrated in its use with cooked cabbage, whose odor is one of the most obnoxious household odors, and is actually used in tests for household sprays, etc. Mace or nutmeg sprinkled upon cooked cabbage completely masks the sulfide odor (compare lemon oil on fish or other seafood, lime oil on garlic and protein-foods, etc.). Perfumers do distinguish, however, between the nutmeg oil from East Indian nutmeg and that from West Indian nutmeg. The former is generally preferred for its higher aromatic value, better solubility in ethyl alcohol, and for its richer body. When they are freshly distilled the two oils have a peculiar “rubberlike” top note due to certain low-boiling terpenes. This odor settles down and vanishes after a few months of aging or after the proper, thorough airing of the oils. 

Source:

1. Fulvio Ciccolo, 2020

2. Perfume and Flavor Materials of Natural Origin — S. Arctander (1961)

3. Myristica fragrans Houttuyn, Flora of China, eFloras.org, retrieved 2014-06-07

4. Myristica fragrans, Germplasm Resources Information Network. Agricultural Research Service (ARS), United States Department of Agriculture(USDA). Retrieved 2014-06-07

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6. Houttuyn, M. (December 1774), Natuurlijke Historie, 2, p. 333, retrieved 2014-06-07

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10. Clark CR, DeRuiter J, Noggle FT (1996-01-01). "Analysis of 1-(3-Methoxy-4,5-Methylenedioxyphenyl)-2-Propanamine(MMDA)Derivatives Synthesized from Nutmeg Oil and 3-Methoxy-4,5-Methylenedioxybenzaldehyde". Journal of Chromatographic Science. 34 (1): 34–42. doi:10.1093/chromsci/34.1.34

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