With your colors shining bright, You stopped the pigeons in their flight; From Dutchmen’s fields they planted seed, Which brought forth wealth in time of need. ALTHOUGH nutmegs and mace are the fruit of the same tree, and although they have similar properties, they are yet so different in growth and flavor as to justify giving to them separate chapters. The fleshy scarlet mantle or arillus which envelopes the nutmeg (illustration under nutmeg), or the coat between the outside pericarp and the seed of the nutmeg, is called mace (Latin, Macis; French, Macis; German, Maker). It is not a continuous coat, but a network which varies in amount in different localities, as well as on the several species of nuts, being from 0.25 per cent. in the Bandas to 10 per cent. in Jamaica. It would, therefore, require from ten to 400 pounds of nutmegs to produce one pound of mace. Planchon says of this laciniate envelope that it is nothing more than an expansion of the exostome and, therefore, an arillode or false aril. Mace is harvested at the same time as the nutmegs and sometimes it is removed from the nutmeg by scraping with a knife, but removing it by hand is considered the better way. This is done by commencing at the base of the nut, for the reason that there the interlacing or lining becomes more expanded and at the same time flattened. In this condition it is placed on mats or trays to dry in the sunshine. The modern drier, however, is now largely used and is preferable, even when the weather is clear for a sufficient time to cure the mace, as sunshine seems to absorb some of its substantial qualities. The modern drier also prevents it from drying too rapidly. Mace, in drying, is first crimson, then blood red, but in process of drying it loses this tinge, and after a few months, when properly cured, it is of a yellowish or golden-brown color, preferred by the dealers. It is then firmly packed in bags (called by the Germans in the Straits Settlements, sok kols). The Banda mace is usually packed in one-half piculs of sixty-five pounds and in barrels or casks containing about 280 pounds each, the pressure being about equal to the weight of the mace. When driers are not used and the weather is wet, mace is dried by being smoked, care being taken not to blacken it. Sometimes the base of the mace is cut off and it is dried in double layers—a process which many think has a tendency to keep worms from working into it, but this is not true, as it, instead, furnishes a place in which they can hide. True mace is the product of the true nutmeg, which is round and covered with single and double blades of flat and somewhat irregular smooth slits. These are slightly flexible or brittle membrane of a golden-yellow color, and, in the odor and taste, analogous to the odor and taste of the nutmeg. They are rich in fixed and essential oils and in aroma. While each is a part of the same fruit, the nutmeg and mace are entirely different in outward appearance and are separated for commercial purposes, as well as for their separate uses. The Penang mace is most esteemed because it is flaxy and spreads. Penang exported 1,143 piculs, valued at $105,032, in 1904. The Dutch or Batavian is more fleshy and cheaper. The Singapore is inferior to both the Penang and the Dutch, while the wild or false mace from the long nutmegs is dark red and has a coarse, strong flavor, which is very different from that of the true mace. 5. Tamk Bedd, G. L., Sylv. t269; Rheede, Hort., M21, iv, t5. 6. Pharmacographia Indica. The myristica argentea produces a dirty-brown colored mace, and the arillus generally consists of four broad stripes which are united above and below. In selecting mace care should be taken to select the orange-colored with a transparent-like appearance. When it has a tendency to crumble to dust it is considered of poor quality. Dull-looking parcels should be avoided, as such is never genuine mace, but is obtained from concrete virtue or expressed oil of bruised or broken nutmegs. Although pure mace has a flavor quite similar to that of the nutmeg, it has a peculiarity of its own which most people prefer. It is extensively used for medicinal purposes. Ground mace, which is powdered by stamps or by pounding, the same as nutmegs or mustard, loses its flavor very rapidly and when distilled yields a reddish, buttery oil, which can be obtained by process of distillation. This oil is strong and volatile and contains an oxygenated body, the properties of which have not been determined. This buttery oil, mixed with other substances, is known as nutmeg balsam. (See nutmegs.) The uniform, small-celled, angular parenchyma of mace contains numerous brown cells of large size and the inner parts contain thin, brown vascular bundles. The cells of the epidermis on either side are colorless, containing thick walls, longitudinally extended, and covered with a peculiar cuticle of broad, flat, ribbon-like cells as a continuous film which cannot be removed. The parenchyma also contains many small granules to which a red color is imparted by means of a solution of meracious nitrate and an orange hue by use of iodine. This result shows that they consist of albuminous matter without starch. The chemical characteristics are so marked and the structure is so closely carried out that the adulteration of ground mace is very easily detected. All the details of structure in the ground powder of mace are readily made out by chloral-hydrate preparation with the polarized light, as the brown vascular bundles, the ribbon-like and epidermal cells are all polarizing substances, while the large mass of granular parenchymous cells are not. The ribbon-like cells are particularly interesting in the varied forms they assume. THE CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF MACEThe nature of the principal constituent of mace can be found from the following experiments: Seventeen grammes of finely pulverized mace were entirely exhausted by boiling ether and the solvent left to spontaneous evaporations. The residue, amounting to 5.57 grammes after dessications at 100 degrees C., was reduced in weight to 4.17, the loss 1.40 grammes being the essential oil, which was 8.2 per cent. The residue, amounting to 24.5 per cent., was thick, aromatic balsam in which we can find no trace or presence of fat, but, instead, it consisted of resin and semi-resinified aromatic oil. Alcohol extracts from this 1.4 per cent. of uncrystallizable sugar, which may be reduced by cupric oxide. The drug after this treatment with alcohol and ether yields scarcely anything to cold water, but boiling water extracts 1.8 per cent. of mucilage, which takes a blue color if treated with iodine, or a reddish-violet if previously dried. This test shows that it has qualities quite different from those of nutmegs. This substance is not soluble in an ammoniacal solution of cupric oxide; it seems rather to be an intermediary body between gum and starch, and may be called amylodextrin. 7. Amyloceous, starchy. Chemical composition:
The city of Macassar, Celebes, exported during the first nine months of the year 1905, $4,520.61 worth of mace; and Padang, Sumatra, exported $1,617.17 during the same time. The city of Singapore exported $22,710.12 worth during the year 1904. MUSTARD |