MYRISTICA OIL

Description

Evergreen tree 15 to 20 m (49 to 66 ft.) in height; grows in Java, Sumatra, Borneo, Penang, Moluccas, and in several other islands of the Indian Ocean. It has alternate leaves and dioecious flowers. Consequently, only female trees bear nuts; male plants are interdispersed in the groves only to ensure pollination. The ripe fruits are yellow-red with a fleshy pericarp; the red arillode is tightly wrapped around a woody hull containing the seed.
Note: Mace designates the dried arillodes of nutmeg. The ratio of nutmegs to mace is approximately 10:1. Nutmeg and mace yield different, but sometimes similar, products.
The parts used are the nuts (free of the outer pulp) and arillodes (decolorized with lime). The most commercially important qualities of nutmeg and mace follow:
? Banda nutmeg and Banda mace contain 8% and 13% essential oil, respectively;
? Java nutmeg and Java mace contain 6.5% and 11% essential oil, respectively; and
? Siauw nutmeg and Siauw mace contain 6.5% and 10 to 12% essential oil, respectively.
These qualities are further subdivided according to size-large, medium, and small-for extraction and according to appearance- whole, worm-eaten, etc.

Chemical properties

The oil is obtained by steam distillation of dried comminuted nutmeg previously treated by hydraulic expression to remove fixed oils; yields are approximately 12%. The hot expression of nutmeg yields a fatty oil with a melting point of about 45°C. Two types of oils, the East Indian and West Indian, are commercially available. The oil exhibits a characteristic nutmeg odor.

Physical properties

Nutmeg essential oil is a colorless to pale-yellow liquid. It is soluble in alcohol.

Occurrence

Found in the fruit of Myristica fragrans Houtt. (Fam. Myristicaceae) (Gildemeister & Hoffman, 1956; Guenther, 1952).

The Uses of MYRISTICA OIL

As a cooking spice, flavoring in food and beverages. Nutmeg oil as fragrance in soaps, detergents, creams, lotions, perfumes. Fixed oil in candles.

The Uses of MYRISTICA OIL

Ground nutmeg remains a popular spice in home kitchens, used to flavor holiday staples such as pumpkin pie and eggnog. The seed has a red, lacy covering that is dried to form mace, a spice with similar flavor to nutmeg but without toxicity. The essential oil of nutmeg is extracted for commercial culinary use. The seed can also be crushed into a butter, which is used as an industrial lubricant. There is no Food and Drug Administration approved medical use for nutmeg, although it is sometimes used as a herbal remedy for arthritis, diarrhea, flatulence, and gastrointestinal complaints. Nutmeg is abused for its hallucinogenic properties, most commonly by adolescent males.

Preparation

By steam distillation of the dried nutmeg (Guenther, 1952).

Definition

Extractives and their physically modified derivatives. Myristica fragrans, Myristicaceae.

Essential oil composition

The oil contains α- and γ-pinene, camphene, dipentene, p-cymene, d-linalool, terpineol, geraniol, safrole, eugenol and isoeugenol.

Pharmacology

The principal pharmacologically active component of nutmeg, myristicin, caused ataxia and disorientation in monkeys and enhanced morphine-induced rage in cats (Truitt et al 1961). Doses of 400 mg on alternate days produced in normal volunteers some evidence of slight euphoria, but none resembling the symptoms of excitation seen in acute nutmeg poisoning (Truitt et al 1961).

Safety Profile

Moderately toxic by ingestion. Low toxicity by skin contact. An experimental teratogen. Experimental reproductive effects. Mutation data reported. A skin irritant. When heated to decomposition it emits acrid smoke and irritating fumes.

Metabolism

Nutmeg demonstrates a mild degree of monoamine oxidase (MAO)-inhibiting activity in vitro and in vivo (Truitt, 1967; Truitt & Ebersberger, 1962). In a test based on interference with tryptamine metabolism, nutmeg was shown to possess a weak enzyme-inhibitory action, but inhibition by myristicin was approximately one third as powerful as that of iproniazid, a well known antidepressant of this class (Truitt & Ebersberger, 1962). When oral doses of 0.2 or 1.0 g/kg nutmeg powder (as an acacia suspension) were given to mice and rats, the onset of the inhibiting action was first noted 17-24 hr after feeding as a lowering of the convulsive threshold in mice following iv injection of tryptamine. In rats, after the tryptamine injection, the MAO inhibition took the form of an increase in concentration of 5-hydroxytryptamine in the brain (Truitt, Duritz & Ebersberger, 1963).

Toxicity evaluation

The mechanism of toxicity remains elusive. An early hypothesis hinged on the similarity of nutmeg’s aromatic compounds to amphetamine-like compounds, suggesting amination/transamination by hepatic pathways. Myristicin has some similarity to methylenedioxyamphetamine and elemicin is similar to mescaline. However, the required pathway for this transformation is not known to exist in humans. Some components of nutmeg have similarity to serotonin agonists, and others appear to have weak monoamine oxidase-inhibiting ability. Further studies are needed.