Bio Diversity Park

Common Name : Allspice, Jamaican pepper

Hindi Name : शीतलचीनी, कबाब चीनी | Scientific Name : Pimenta dioica
Family : Myrtaceae
Uses : It is used for a variety of human endeavors, such as in perfumery industry, food spice, as a natural pesticide, and in folk medicine. It is widely used in baking and is usually present in mincemeat and mixed pickling spice. Allspice berries contain about 4% essential oils (of which about 80% is eugenol), proteins, lipids, the vitamins A, B1, B2 and C, plus minerals. It is a pungent, warming, aromatic herb with a clove-like aroma. It improves the digestion, has a tonic effect upon the nervous system and is locally antiseptic and anaesthetic.
It is used internally in the treatment of indigestion, wind, diarrhoea and nervous exhaustion. Allspice is often combined with herbs that have a tonic or laxative effect. According to ayurveda, it improves the digestive fire and prevents gas formation because of its Deepan (appetizer) and Pachan (digestive) properties.

Native: S. Mexico to Central America, Caribbean
General Description:

P. dioica is a small dioecious evergreen tree, 7-10 m tall with a slender trunk (50-100 cm at the base) with many branches 1-2 m above the ground. The bark is pale silver-brown, smooth and shiny, and sheds strips 25-75 cm long. Leaves are borne in clusters at the ends of branches. Flowers are white and in branching clusters; berries are green when unripe, turning deep purple to glossy black when ripe. Leaves are 6-15 cm long, 3-6 cm wide, simple, opposite and aromatic when crushed. They are dark green on the upper surface and lighter green beneath. Flowers are structurally hermaphrodite, but functionally male or female. They are aromatic and 8-10 mm in diameter, with four rounded petals about 3-4 mm long, which are quickly deciduous. The stamens are numerous, 5 mm long (100 in male flowers, 50 in female flowers). The anther is cream coloured, the style white and 5 mm long, and the stigma is yellow. Fruits are round, drooping berries, 4-6 mm in diameter, green when unripe, turning deep purple to black when ripe. Fruits are aromatic on drying; dried unripe fruits are dark brown. The fruits consist of a thick pulp with two kidney-shaped seeds separated from each other by a membrane.