Navin Trading Company

Turmeric (Curcuma longa) is native to Asia and India. The tuberous rhizomes or underground stems of turmeric are used from antiquity as condiments, a dye and as an aromatic stimulant in several medicines. Turmeric is a very important spice in India, which produces nearly the whole world's crop and uses 80percent of it. Presently, it is cultivated in China, Taiwan, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Australia, Africa, Peru and the West Indies.

Turmeric usage dates back nearly 4000 years, to the Vedic culture in India, when turmeric was the principal spice and also of religious significance. It is much revered by Hindus and associated with fertility. In today's India, turmeric is still added to nearly every dish, be it meat or vegetables. Turmeric has been used in Indian systems of medicine for a long time.

It is listed in an Assyrian herbal dating from about 600 BC and is also mentioned by Dioscorides. In Malaysia, a paste of turmeric is spread on the mother’s abdomen and on the umbilical cord after childbirth, not only to warn off evil spirits, but also for its medicinal value. Both the East and the West have held its medicinal properties in high regard. Rhizomes are the used plant part. Fresh turmeric leaves are used in some regions of Indonesia as a flavouring. In fresh state, the rootstock has a aromatic and spicy fragrance, which by drying gives way to a more medicinal aroma. On storing, the smell rather quickly changes to earthy and unpleasant. Similarly, the colour of ground turmeric tends to fade if the spice is stored too long. It is called ‘Indian saffron’ because of its orange-yellow colour. In some languages, the names of turmeric just mean "yellow root"; English turmeric derives from the (now obsolete) French terre-mérite (Latin terra merita, meritorious earth"), probably because ground turmeric resembles mineral pigments (ocher). The genus name Curcuma is of the same origin, being a Latinization of Arabic kurkum meaning saffron.

Cinnamon, a bushy evergreen tree of the laurel family Lauraceae is native to Sri Lanka Ceylon, the neighbouring Malabar Coast of India, and Myanmar Burma and also cultivated in South America and the West Indies for the spice consisting of its dried inner bark. The spice is light brown in colour and has a delicately fragrant aroma and warm, sweet flavour. It is lighter in colour and milder in flavour than the other related species.

Cinnamon was once more valuable than gold and has been associated with ancient rituals of sacrifice or pleasure. In Egypt, it was sought for embalming and witchcraft; in medieval Europe for religious rites and as flavouring. References to cinnamon are plenty throughout the Old Testament in the Bible. Later it was the most profitable spice in the Dutch East India Company trade.

Black pepper Piper nigrum, the king of spices, is one of the oldest and the most popular spice in the world. It is a perennial, climbing vine indigenous to the Malabar Coast of India. The hotly pungent spice made from its berries is one of the earliest spices known and is probably the most widely used spice in the world today. It was mentioned as far back as 1000 BC in ancient Sanskrit literature.

In early historic times black pepper was widely cultivated in the tropics of Southeast Asia, where it became an important article of overland trade between India and Europe. It became a medium of exchange, and tributes were levied in black pepper in ancient Greece and Rome. In the Middle Ages the Venetian and the Genoese became the main distributors, their virtual monopoly of the trade helping to instigate the search for an eastern sea route. The name pepper comes from the Sanskrit word pippali meaning berry.

Cardamom, the 'queen of spices', is a rich spice culled from the seeds of a cardamum perennial plant, Elettaria cardamomum. It is one of the highly prized spices of the world. It is believed that the original home of this precious spice is the mountains of the South- Western parts of the Indian Peninsula. As early as the 4th century BC cardamom was used in India as a medicinal herb and was an article of Greek and Roman trade.

Cardamom is a native of Western Ghats in South India. India had a virtual monopoly of cardamom till recently. But now it is being cultivated in Guatemala, SriLanka, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Costa Rica, El Salvador and Tanzania. Cardamom cultivation in India is confined to three states, viz. Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

Chilli or pepper capsicum is any of a great number of plants of the night shade family, solanaceae, extensively cultivated throughout tropical asia and equatorial america for their edible, pungent fruits. India is the largest producer and exporter of chillies. The genus capsicum comprised all the varied forms of fleshy-fruited peppers grown as herbaceous annuals - the red, green, and yellow pepper rich in vitamins a and c that are used in seasoning and as a vegetable food. It includes paprika, chili pepper, red pepper (cayenne), and bell peppers.

The latter one is considered and eaten as a vegetable and is not covered in this section. The capsicums under each category vary tremendously and the species designation is not always possible. In general, paprika belongs to c. Annum and the red peppers and chili peppers belong to the c. Frutescens species. The name chilli is believed to be derived from an ancient indian word txile. The term "pimiento," from the spanish for "pepper", is applied to certain mild pepper varieties possessing distinctive flavour but lacking in pungency; these include the european paprikas, which include the paprika of commerce, a powdered red condiment that was known in hungary by the late 16th century.

Kokam is an Indian spice specialty, with an agreeable flavor and sweet, acidic taste. By both culinary and medical standards, kokam ranks high. Indian kokam is a versatile spice. Its oils, seeds, fruits, bark and the young leaves are all of extensive culinary and therapeutic value. The kokam fruit is cholagogue, cooling, demulcent, emollient and antiseptic. The bark and young leaves are astringent. The oil is emollient and soothing.

Among the major uses of kokam are, as a garnish for curries and in the preparation of cooling syrups. In India, kokam is grown plentifully in the Konkan, Malabar and Kanara regions of Western India which combine the advantages of good sunshine, adequate rainfall and rich soil. Exported mainly in the forms of fruits, oil kokam butter and syrup, Indian kokam is already popular in several countries like USA, The UK, Canada, Australia, Hong Kong and the Middle East.

Ginger is one of the earliest known oriental spices and is being cultivated in India both as a fresh vegetable and as a dried spice since time immemorial. Ginger is obtained from the rhizomes of Zingiber officinale. The ginger family is a tropical group especially abundant in Indo-Malaysia, consisting of more 1200 plant species in 53 genera. The genus Zingiber includes about 85 species of aromatic herbs from East Asia and tropical Australia.

The word ginger is derived from a Sanskrit word singabera meaning 'shaped like a deer's antlers horn. Ginger is not known in a wild state and has been cultivated for so long in both China and India that its exact origin is unclear. It is believed to be a native of Southern Asia.

Tamarindus (tamarindus indica) is an evergreen tree, of the pea family native to tropical africa. It is widely cultivated in other regions as an ornamental and for its edible fruit. The word tamarind literally means ‘date of india’. Tamarind, a native of east africa, is now grown extensively in india, south east asia and the west indies.

Clove, small, reddish-brown flower bud of the tropical evergreen tree syzygium aromaticum of the family myrtaceae, was important in the earliest spice trade and believed in indigenous to the moluccas or spice islands (now maluka), of indonesia. The people of the moluccas used to plant a clove tree to celebrate the birth of a child and would wear a necklace of cloves as a protection from evil spirit and illness.

Strong in aroma and hot and pungent in taste, cloves are used to flavour many foods, particularly meats and bakery products; in europe and the usa the spice is a characteristic flavouring in christmas holiday fare, such as wassail and mincemeat. The name clove is believed to be derived from the french word clou meaning nail due to the appearance of this spice. As early as 200 bc, envoys from java to the han-dynasty court of china brought cloves that were customarily held in the mouth to perfume the breath during audiences with the emperor. During the late middle ages, cloves were used in europe to preserve, flavour, and garnish food. Clove cultivation was almost entirely confined to indonesia, and in the early 17th century the dutch eradicated cloves on all islands except amboina and ternate in order to create scarcity and sustain high prices. In the latter half of the 18th century the french smuggled cloves from the east indies to indian ocean islands and the new world, breaking the dutch monopoly.

Vanilla is the fully grown fruit of the orchid Vanilla fragrans. Vanilla is indigenous to South-Eastern Mexico, Gautemala and other parts of Central America, growing wild as a climber in the forests. Vanilla cultivation on a systematic basis began with the introduction of it into Java,Seychelles, Tahiti, Comoro Islands, Martinique, Madagascar, Uganda etc. in the 19th century and early part of the 20th century. At present Malagasy Republic is the major producer of vanilla. It was introduced in India in 1835. Presently, Kerala also contributes to the cultivation of Vanilla.

Nutmeg is the seed of an apricot-like fruit of the nutmeg tree and mace is its arillus, a thin leathery tissue between the stone and the pulp. Both spices are strongly aromatic, resinous and warm in taste. Mace is generally said to have a finer aroma than nutmeg, but the difference is small. Nutmeg quickly loses its fragrace when ground. Naturally, nutmeg is limited to the Banda Islands, a tiny archipelago in Eastern Indonesia (Moluccas).

Main producing countries today are Indonesia (East Indian Nutmeg) and Grenada (West Indian Nutmeg); the latter is regarded as inferior. In many European countries, the name of nutmeg derives from Latin nux muscatus "musky nut; moschate nut, the Middle English form is notemugge. Mace goes back to Greek makir, which was used to denote an oriental spice, though it is not clear whether this was identical to mace.