Myristica (PROSEA Spices)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Myristica argentea: 1, leafy twig with male inflorescences; 2, male flower bud; 3, staminal column; 4, female flower bud; 5, half fruit showing seed with aril

Myristica Gronov.

Protologue: Fl. orient.: 141 (1755).

Family: Myristicaceae

Chromosome number: x = unknown; 2n = 44 (M. argentea)

Major species

• Myristica argentea Warb., Bot. Jahrb. 13: 311 (1891), synonym: M. finschii Warb. (1897).

• Myristica fragrans Houtt. - see separate article.

• Myristica succedanea Reinw. ex Blume, Rumphia 1: 186 (1837), synonyms: M. radja Miquel (1864), M. schefferi Warb. (1897), M. speciosa Warb. (1897).

Vernacular names

General

• Nutmeg (En).
• Indonesia: pala
• Malaysia: pendarah, pianggu (Malay), kumpang (Sarawak)
• Papua New Guinea: nutmeg
• Philippines: duguan
• Burma (Myanmar): mutwinda
• Thailand: chan-pa
• Vietnam: nhục dậu khấu

M. argentea

• Papua or Papuan nutmeg, long nutmeg, Macassar nutmeg (En)
• Noix de muscade mâle, noix de muscade longue (Fr)
• Indonesia: pala Irian (general), pala lelaki (Java), henggi (Irian Jaya)
• Malaysia: pala papua

M. succedanea

• Halmahera nutmeg (En).
• Indonesia: pala patani (Ternate), pala onin (Ternate), pala utan (Bacan)

Origin and geographic distribution

Myristica consists of about 100 species. The main centre of origin is New Guinea, and from there it has spread eastward and westward. At present it is found from southern India and Sri Lanka, throughout South-East Asia towards northern Australia, the Solomon Islands, Fiji, Tonga and Samoa.

• M. argentea probably originated in Irian Jaya, where it occurs both wild and cultivated. In the wild, it is confined to the Bomberi peninsula of Irian Jaya, while its cultivation has spread along the coast, also into Papua New Guinea. Occasionally, it is also cultivated in the Moluccas.

• M. succedanea is found wild and cultivated in the northern Moluccas (Ternate, Tidore, and Bacan; in Halmahera it is said to be cultivated only).

Uses

The main products of Myristica are the shelled dried seed (nutmeg) and the dried aril (mace) which are used as spice or condiment to flavour foods, pickles, sauces and puddings. These spices derive from various Myristica species but most of the nutmeg and mace in trade is from M. fragrans, with M. argentea as a good second. Myristica is also used in traditional medicine, and the seeds were formerly used in pharmaceuticals and cosmetics. The pericarp of the fruit of some species is edible, and numerous Myristica species are used as timber. The wood has a reddish brown colour and is usually soft and not durable. M. argentea and M. succedanea and possibly also other species have been tried as a rootstock for M. fragrans. The red sap (kino), present in the bark of most species, can be used as a dye that gives a permanent brown stain.

• M. argentea. The shelled seeds are used like those of M. fragrans. The aril enters the market as "Macassar mace”. Medicinally the seed is used in Indonesia to induce hypnosis, to suppress fever and coughs, to treat diarrhoea, as an aphrodisiac and as a purgative (on the traditional medicine market, seed of M. argentea has replaced seed of the Moluccan M. fatua Houtt. but the vernacular names have remained the same). The volatile oil is used in the perfume and soap industry. A minor use of the fruits is the preparation of jelly from the husks and pickled husks, while confiture is obtained by sweetening young fruits or thinly sliced husks of unripe fruits.

• M. succedanea. The small shelled seeds are used like those of M. fragrans.

Production and international trade

By far the most important Myristica species is M. fragrans. There is some cultivation of M. argentea in Irian Jaya and Papua New Guinea. The products of some other species are gathered in forests when prices are favourable. For 1959, the production of M. argentea in Irian Jaya was estimated at 300 t of dry seed and 60 t of dry mace. Recent production and trade figures are only available for M. fragrans. Prices of the products of M. argentea and other species are lower than those of M. fragrans, and overproduction of the latter also limits the market for other Myristica species.

Properties

Nutmeg and mace contain essential oil and fat or nutmeg butter. Nutmeg butter is highly aromatic, orange-coloured, and consists mainly of trimyristin. The amount of fat in the seeds of M. argentea is similar to that in M. fragrans but the fat is brighter. The essential oil and the nutmeg butter contain myristicin, which is hallucinogenic and poisonous. The myristicin content of M. argentea is only 0.13% compared with more than 2% for seeds of M. fragrans. As the psychotropic activity of nutmeg (euphoria, hallucinations) seems to be linked to myristicin, M. argentea will probably have less effect than M. fragrans. The safrole content of M. argentea (0.5%) is higher than that of M. fragrans (0.3%); safrole has been reported to be a possible carcinogen. The lignan meso-dihydroguaiaretic acid, isolated from the aril of M. argentea, shows strong antibacterial action against Streptococcus mutans, which causes tooth caries. In mice, an aqueous extract of the seeds depresses motoric activity and caffeine-induced excitement, and prolongs spontaneous and pentobarbital-induced sleep; it also inhibits brief tonic spasms caused by pentobarbital before hypnosis.

Adulteration and substitutes

All Myristica spp. of which the seed and aril are used as spice can be used as cheaper substitute or as adulteration of the true nutmeg M. fragrans. For South-East Asia the most important substitutes are M. argentea and M. succedanea. Ground nutmeg from M. argentea can be identified by its high safrole content.

Description

• Dioecious, small to large evergreen trees up to 35(-45) m tall; bole cylindrical, up to 70(-100)cm in diameter, plank or flying buttresses and stilt roots often present; bark surface usually fissured, sometimes flaking, brownish or occasionally black and brittle, inner bark pinkish to reddish brown; crown monopodial, often pyramidal with spreading radial limbs; twigs striate, with or without lenticels.
• Leaves distichous, simple and entire, petiolate; blade elliptical to elliptical-lanceolate or elliptical-obovate, up to 50 cm long, often glaucous and glabrous or glabrescent or with persistent indumentum of dendroid and/or scale-like hairs below; secondary veins often sunken above, straight or curved, tertiary venation finely reticulate and forming a close network; stipules absent.
• Inflorescence an axillary panicle with flowers in cymes or subumbels reduced to short woody knobs, female inflorescence usually less branched or more compact; bracts small, caducous, bracteoles persistent, usually embracing the base of the flower on one side.
• Flowers actinomorphic, small, pedicelled, often fragrant; perianth elliptical to flask-shaped or campanulate, white to yellow, generally 3-lobed, often with reflexed lobes, glabrous or variously hairy outside, usually glabrous inside; male flower with an androecium of 6-30 anthers fused with their back to a central column and with their sides to each other; female flowers with a superior, globose to subglobose, l-celled, glabrous or hairy ovary, stigma sessile, minutely 2-lobed.
• Fruit globose to ovoid, pyriform or oblong, with thick fleshy wall, orange-yellow, or rusty brown, eventually splitting into 2 halves, l-seeded.
• Seed ellipsoidal, enclosed in a red to orange aril which is laciniate to the base or nearly so, seed-coat hard; kernel with ruminate endosperm containing oil and much starch.
• Seedling with hypogeal germination; leaves arranged spirally.

M. argentea

• Tree 15-20(-25) m tall; bark dark or blackish grey with very small scales; sap red; older twigs rugose by conspicuous wart-like lenticels.
• Leaves chartaceous; petiole 1.5-2 cm long; blade mostly elliptical-lanceolate, 10-20(-25) cm × 4-6(-10) cm, cuneate at base, lower surface silvery by short cobweb-like indumentum, midrib and 9-13 pairs of veins sunken above, prominent beneath.
• Male inflorescence 2-5 cm long, slender, simple or mostly forked once, bearing 3-5 flowers; pedicel slender, 1-1.3 cm long; perianth ellipsoidal, 7-11 mm × 5 mm, medium brown, subglabrous; female inflorescence 1-1.5 cm long, main axis usually simple, but sometimes bifurcate; pedicel 8 mm long; perianth ovoid-ellipsoidal, 8-10 mm × 5-5.5 mm with a beak-like apex; ovary flask-shaped, 3-4 mm × 7 mm, light brown-tomentose.
• Fruit ellipsoidal, 4.5-8.5 cm × 4.5-5.5 cm, slightly narrowed at both ends, glabrescent, yellow with some brown pustules.
• Seed oblong-cylindrical, up to 4 cm long, broadening at the base, shiny black-brown; aril thin, red.

M. succedanea

• Tree 8-15 m tall with stilt roots and a pyramidal crown; twigs stoutish, slender towards the top.
• Leaves subcoriaceous; blade broadly elliptical, elliptical-lanceolate, oblong-lanceolate, less often oblong-ovate or oblanceolate, 9-22 cm × 4-11 cm, shiny dark green above, silvery minutely hairy but late glabrescent beneath with veins brownish or reddish-brown; veins 10-18 pairs, from faint to impressed above, prominent beneath.
• Male inflorescence rusty-tomentulose, usually bifurcate, main axis 1-2 cm long; pedicel 0.7-1 cm long; flower oblongoid, 7-10 mm × 4 mm, medium brown-tomentulose outside, cream-coloured and glabrous inside, fragrant; female inflorescence shorter than the male, 0.5-1 cm long, simple or occasionally bifurcate; pedicel 1 cm long; flower ovoid, 7-10 mm × 5 mm, fragrant, ovary rusty-tomentulose.
• Fruit subglobose to ovoid-ellipsoidal, 7 cm × 4 cm, tomentulose becoming glabrous; hull 1 cm thick.
• Seed broadly oblongoid, 3 cm × 2.5 cm, aril red, endosperm aromatic.

Growth and development

After germination the testa remains around the cotyledons and they are shed together later on. The taproot, hypocotyl and plumule are freed from the testa by elongation of the cotyledonary petioles. The seedling stem grows in flushes, and develops cataphylls early in the growing season. Leaves produced at the end of the growing season are largest and form a pseudo-whorl. The shoot ends in a usually "open” terminal bud from which the orthotropic growth proceeds in the next season. Branching occurs from the axils of the pseudo-whorled leaves, causing pseudo-verticillate branching from the main stem. The branches are usually more or less horizontal or somewhat drooping; they ramify to various degrees and in the periphery of the crown may carry twigs with inflorescences. The branch phyllotaxis is distichous. The general growth form of Myristicaceae is according to Massart's architectural model. Strong erect-growing renewal shoots may be produced after severe damage to the crown, showing dispersed phyllotaxis. In many Myristicaceae the flowers are pollinated by bees. The fruits are commonly dispersed by birds, including pigeons and hornbills.

Other botanical information

The vernacular names of many Myristica spp. are derived from the word blood, referring to the blood-red sap that exudes when the bark is slashed.

Many Myristica spp. of freshwater swamp or peat-swamp forest have stilt roots, but these do not seem to develop when they grow in drier conditions. Therefore stilt roots are not a useful characteristic for identification.

For an easy distinction with the true nutmeg (M. fragrans) the following characters can be useful: M. argentea has rough twigs with numerous lenticels and larger leaves with a silvery undersurface; the seed is longer and the aril is thinner and less divided. M. succedanea has stouter twigs and larger leaves and flowers, but its seed is smaller; the leaves are more coriaceous than those of M. argentea. Outside the region the following species are occasionally used as a spice: M. castaneifolia A. Gray (original spelling castaneaefolia A. Gray; synonyms: M. macrophylla A. Gray; M. macrantha A.C. Smith) in the Fiji Islands; M. dactyloides Gaertner (synonyms: M. laurifolia Hook.f. & Thomson, M. diospyrifolia A. DC.) in Sri Lanka; M. malabarica Lamk in western India; and M. muelleri Warb. in north-eastern Queensland (Australia).

Ecology

Most Myristica spp. are inhabitants of lowland, tropical, evergreen rain forest up to 800 m altitude, though there are several mountain species as well. They usually form part of the second storey, though some reach the canopy top. M. argentea grows on slopes below 700 m altitude. Myristica is susceptible to strong winds, because of its superficial root system; in 1960, M. argentea plantations in New Guinea were severely damaged by storms. The areas in New Guinea where M. argentea thrives are also used for the cultivation of M. fragrans. Except where cultivated, M. succedanea is a tree of mountain forests and probably rare nowadays. Myristica can be grown on various soil types.

Propagation and planting

Myristica is usually propagated from seed collected from under the tree. The seed dries out easily, loses its viability rapidly, and cannot be stored. Shading is beneficial in the early growth stages. In New Guinea, trees are traditionally planted at distances of 3-4 m. Correct spacing is important, as trees flower at the end of the branches. Therefore, planting distances should be such that branches of neighbouring trees never meet. Full-grown trees of M. argentea can reach a height of 25 m and a spread of 10-12 m. In the first 20 years of their life cycle, the trees do not occupy all the space, and interplanting with other crops is an option.

Husbandry

Traditionally, the products of M. argentea were gathered from the forest when prices were high, but by the end of the 19th Century some cultivation had started. Young wild plants from the forest were planted in abandoned shifting cultivation plots, resulting in extensive plantations after some decades, estimated at 1000-1500 ha. It is considered a semi-cultivated crop, the trees grow in the forest, but are individual property. Mature trees of M. argentea are always cultivated unshaded in New Guinea. During the period of harvest, weeds are removed from under the trees.

Harvesting

The seed and mace of M. argentea should be treated in the same way as the products of M. fragrans, and should be harvested continuously. Traditionally, however, there are only two harvests of M. argentea in New Guinea: one in January and one in April.

Yield

Adequately spaced and healthy female trees of M. argentea on average yield about 2000 fruits per year, the best trees 4000, and not adequately spaced trees only 300. At plant densities of 100 female trees per ha, each producing 2000 fruits per year, the annual yield amounts to 1200 kg seeds and 335 kg mace per ha.

Handling after harvest

Traditionally, harvested fruits of M. argentea are peeled, and the mace is loosened, flattened and dried. Seeds are dried in the smoke of a fire, either in the house or in a special "pala house”; they usually leave New Guinea unshelled and unsorted.

Genetic resources and breeding

Myristica spp. are threatened by general deforestation activities, but they are seldom selectively logged for timber. Because of outbreeding, the variability within species is large. The Research Institute for Spice and Medicinal Crops (RISMC), Bogor, Indonesia, has a collection of 39 morphotypes (450 trees) of Myristica spp. However, they have not been utilized for breeding. There are no known breeding programmes elsewhere.

Prospects

As the market for true nutmeg and mace is limited, it is unlikely that Myristica spp. that yield similar products of lower quality will become important in the near future.

Literature

• de Wilde, W.J.J.O., 1997. Notes on Southeast Asian and Malesian Myristica and description of new taxa (Myristicaceae). Blumea 42: 111-190.
• Flach, M., 1966. Nutmeg cultivation and its sex-problem; an agronomical and cytogenetical study of the dioecy in Myristica fragrans Houtt. and Myristica argentea Warb. Mededelingen Landbouwhogeschool Wageningen 66-1. Wageningen Agricultural Univerity, Wageningen, the Netherlands. 87 pp.
• Flach, M. & Cruickshank, A.M., 1969. Nutmeg (Myristica fragrans Houtt. and Myristica argentea Warb.). In: Ferwerda, F.P. & Wit, F. (Editors): Outlines of perennial crop breeding in the tropics. Miscellaneous Papers No 4, Wageningen Agricultural University, Wageningen, the Netherlands. pp. 329-338.
• Hadad, E.A.M., 1992. Pala [Nutmeg]. Perkembangan Penelitian Plasma Nutfah Tanaman Rempah dan Obat 8(2): 26-28.
• Perry, L.M., 1980. Medicinal plants of East and Southeast Asia. Attributed properties and uses. The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. p. 280.
• Purseglove, J.W., Brown, E.G., Green, C.L. & Robbins, S.R.J., 1981. Spices. 2 volumes. Longman, Harlow, Essex, United Kingdom. Vol. 1. pp. 174-228.
• Sangat-Roemantyo, H., Martawijaya, A., Nimiago, P. & Sosef, M.S.M., 1995. Myristica Gronov. In: Lemmens, R.H.M.J., Soerianegara, I. & Wong, W.C. (Editors): Plant Resources of South-East Asia No 5(2). Timber trees: Minor commercial timbers. Backhuys Publishers, Leiden, the Netherlands. pp. 346-356.
• Sinclair, J., 1968. The genus Myristica in Malesia and outside Malesia. Florae Malesianae Precursores 42. The Gardens' Bulletin Singapore 23: 1-540.

Sources of illustrations

Myristica argentea: Sinclair, J., 1968. The genus Myristica in Malesia and outside Malesia. Florae Malesianae Precursores 42. The Gardens' Bulletin Singapore 23. Fig. 20, p. 236. Redrawn and adapted by P. Verheij-Hayes.

Authors

N.W. Utami & M. Brink