Exotic, Rare and Unusual Spices

There are (very approximately) 400,000 known species of plant worldwide. An unknown but significant number of these might provide rare and exotic spices, because someone, somewhere, will have thought of a way to use parts of a plant to season a food, or add colour, aroma, pungency, sweetness, sourness or bitterness, or to make an incense or perfume, or to use as a medicine.

Ginkgo and juniper are unusual – mainly because they belong to the Gymnosperms, a group of non-flowering plants that date back to the Carboniferous period. Ginkgo itself dates from the Jurassic period – it co-existed with the dinosaurs – and its resilience is legendary, which can lead to a very long life; some individual trees are believed to be over 2,500 years old. Junipers are coniferous trees belonging to the Cypress family, with over fifty species assigned to the genus Juniperus. The fleshy seed cones (or ‘berries’) of some species are used as a spice, most notably J. communis. The ancient Greeks may have been the first culture to have used juniper berries, both as medicine and then food. The berries have also been found in ancient Egyptian tombs, and in a bowl next to the coffin of an elderly woman at the Tombos archaeological site in Sudan (which spans the mid-18th dynasty to the 25th dynasty Napatan period, or about 1400–300 BCE) – for use in the afterlife as a scent or a spice.⁹⁹

The lesser-known brethren of the major spice families provide quite a few exotics. The ginger family, or Zingiberaceae, is one of the main contributors to aromatic spices, especially from the East, where there is a high diversity of species and it is a good place to start. The genus Zingiber includes common ginger, Z. officinale, and the 200 or so other species include a few spice candidates. Zingiber mioga, or Japanese ginger, is one, but unlike normal ginger, whose rhizome is the useful part, only the flower buds and shoots are used, as a garnish for miso soup among other things.

Alpinia is the largest genus in the ginger family with over 240 species, and quite a few obscure spices. Cardamom ginger (A. calcarata) has leaves with an earthy flavour that can be used in a similar way to bay leaves. Native ginger (A. caerulea) is indigenous to tropical Australia and Papua New Guinea – young rhizome tips have a gingery flavour and the fruit is also edible. Round Chinese cardamom (A. globosa, native to East Asia) has seeds which are used as a condiment.¹⁰⁰ Quite a few species have leaves that are used as food wrappings, e.g. A. eremochlamys, A. nutans (‘cardamom leaf ginger’ – the leaves smell like cardamom), A. nigra, and A. zerumbet (‘shell ginger’).¹⁰¹ Others are purely medicinal, e.g. A. rafflesiana, but more commonly plants have mixed use – A. nigra is a good example, which in addition to its leaves being used as wrappings, young shoots, flowers and rhizomes are eaten raw or cooked, and as a seasoning, while also having traditional medicinal uses.¹⁰² Combined uses are also made from A. conchigera, A. siamensis and A. malaccenisis, the latter’s rhizome being used as spice and vegetable and the essential oil in medicine.¹⁰³

The genus Etlingera has over 100 species, including a few notable ones used as food, spice or medicine. E. elatior, or torch ginger, is a large Southeast Asia native which can reach 6m in height and has a large and beautiful red spike inflorescence, which makes it much in demand for ornamental purposes.

Curcuma also has over 120 species, the most famous being turmeric, C. longa, and zedoary, C. zedoaria. Other edible species include the fascinating mango ginger (C. amada), whose freshly cut rhizome has the colour and aroma of mango and a rich taste, commonly used in stir-fries and salads in Southeast Asia and in pickles and chutneys in India; black turmeric (C. caesia); wild turmeric (C. aromatica); Javanese turmeric (C. zanthorrhiza); narrow-leaved turmeric (C. angustifolia); and at least seven or eight others.¹⁰⁶ The large bulbous rhizomes of C. comosa are a herbal medicine, especially for women’s problems, among several other medicinal species of Curcuma. Boesenbergia has almost 100 species but only one well known as a spice – fingerroot or Chinese keys (B. rotunda) on account of its multi-lobed rhizome, which is very popular in Southeast Asia and known as ‘krachai’ in Thai. Hedychium has around eighty species and a few edible ones, including H. gracile, H. coronarium and H. spicatum. Yellow ginger (H. flavescens) is much loved for its beautiful yellow flowers and is also used as a medicine and in cosmetics. Other important genera include Kaempferia and Globba, which both include edible spices.

The genera Amomum, Aframomum, Elettaria and Renealmia contain species usually harvested for fruits and seeds as opposed to their rhizomes. The genus Amomum has over 100 species including numerous spices – examples are round Siam cardamom (from Thailand), bastard cardamom, Nepal cardamom and round cardamom. Many other species have edible fruits, often used in a similar way to cardamom.

Aframomum has around fifty species, including the most famous spice, Grains of Paradise (A. melegueta), and as the name suggests have a range in tropical Africa as well as some islands in the Indian Ocean. The pulpy fruits of A. alboviolaceum are edible and have a pleasant sharp taste, similar to A. angustifolium from Madagascar (aka Madagascar cardamom). African cardamom (A. danielli) or alligator pepper, native to West Africa, has seeds and pods which are used as a highly pungent spice and typically added to soups and rice dishes. The fruit pulp of A. mala and A. albiflorum, which grow in tropical East Africa, is sweet and acid and eaten as a snack, while the seeds are ground and used as a spice. A. corrorima is a ginger from Ethiopia and Eritrea that is harvested for its slightly pungent seeds which are ground up and used as a spice and also as a carminative medicine.

Several species of Renealmia, a large South American genus, have fruits and/or rhizomes that are used as foods and medicines, e.g. R. alpinia, R. aromatica, R. nicolaioides.

The pepper (Piperaceae) family is another group of global importance, with 3,600 species divided into only two genera: Piper and Peperomia. Seven of the lesser-known Piper spices are covered in the black pepper chapter, but there are plenty of others in both groups; for example, many of the plants in the Peperomia genus have edible spicy aromatic leaves.

The coriander or Apiaceae family is similar in terms of species count – some 3,700. In addition to the major ones already discussed, there are many obscure herbs and spices. Examples are bullwort (Ammi majus), great pignut (Bunium bulbocastanum), lesser burnet (Pimpinella saxifrage), shepherd’s needle (Scandix pecten-venerix) and spignel (Meum athamanticum). Ground elder (Aegopodium podagraria) and hogweed (Heracleum sphondylium) are hardly exotic or rare but are worth adding to the list because of their interesting history and lack of modern-day usage. Ground elder is native to Europe and western Asia and its leaves have been used as a herb since antiquity.

Australia has some real exotics, some of which were originally used by Aboriginal people, but have now become classed as ‘bush tucker’ – consider wattleseed, the edible seeds from various species of acacia, which are either eaten raw or roasted and then ground. Anise myrtle (Syzygium anisatum) is another, a rainforest tree whose aromatic leaves are semblent of aniseed and are used as flavourings or (now more trendily) in herbal teas. The chemical responsible for the scent is anethole, which gives the anise smell in aniseed, fennel and so on. Akudjura is another, the Australian bush tomato (Solanum centrale), known for its strong taste which is a mix of fruity bitterness and caramel!¹⁰⁸ Be careful with this one as the unripe fruit is poisonous.

South Asian examples include Kokum (Garcinia indica), rare in the West, but quite common in India – the red fleshy outer covering of the fruit is used as a souring agent in a similar fashion to tamarind. Garcinia is quite a large genus which includes mangosteen – G.

In China, the delightfully named golden needles are dried lily buds (Hemerocallis fulva) with a pleasant fruity aroma that have been used in food and medicine for at least 2,000 years.¹¹²

Roselle, or Hibiscus sabdariffa, is native to West Africa and the dried flowers are used in beverages and marinades.¹¹³ When they are soaked in water they release a sweet but tangy juice that is similar to cranberries. It has a variety of culinary uses, e.g. it can be sprinkled into soups or mixed into bread dough; in Senegal the green leaves are used to add flavour to a well-known fish and rice dish called ‘thieboudienne’; it is used in India in chutneys. It was introduced to the West Indies in the sixteenth century and to Asia in the seventeenth century. Grains of Selim are the fruits of the evergreen aromatic tree Xylopia aethiopica, which is native to tropical Africa. The fruits consist of linear pods containing the seeds and are used as spice and medicine. The seeds are bitter and pungent while the hull is spicy and resinous. They are typically added to soups and stews, ground up or whole.¹¹⁴

Numerous exotics are found in Latin America; however, Annatto (Bixa orellana) is only exotic to those outside the continent – the orange-red seeds of the achiote tree are used to colour and season food with its sweet peppery and nutty flavour. Epazote (Dysphania ambrosioides), an aromatic leafy herb with a pungent flavour and a mint-anise aroma, is used in Mexican cooking or as a condiment, seasoning or herbal tea, or eaten raw.¹¹⁵ The fruits of rose pepper (Schinus molle) from the Peruvian Andes are dense clusters of small round drupes that ripen to a pink or red colour, which have a mildly piquant sweet flavour.¹¹⁶

So, of the 400,000 flowering plants currently known, how many can be used as spices in one form or another? Going back to the first chapter, it comes down to definitions: if one assumes the broadest sense including spices and herbs, culinary and medicinal, aromatics and colourants, then a rough estimate may be in excess of 100,000; more specific estimates are an attractive challenge!