Spices in India (article)

Spices in India
By M. Ilyas, for Economic Botany (1976)

This article is, as the title suggests, a discourse on spices in India. Ilyas details some of the typical uses of spices: [1] “a condiment and for seasoning food” (273), [2] “preservation and seasoning of meat” (273), [3] used in "medicines, cosmetics and the tobacco industry" (273), and [4] “act as stimulants, carminatives and diuretics” (273).

Ilyas includes a long description of the methods used to propagate, cultivate, harvest and prepare different varieties of pepper. Nothing about serpents and lemons, but if I need a scientific point of view to balance out Mandeville’s pepper narrative, note to self: here it is.