GOA, INDIA – The spice rack doubles as a medicine cabinet in India. Tours of spice plantations in the coastal state of Goa are not just a plant identification tour but lessons in the medicinal purposes of spices.
Guides at the Sahakari Spice Farm and Tropical Spice Plantation identify spice plants and their many uses in cooking and healing.
“This is the medicine of Goa, but only in the rural areas,” said Martin Gonsalvez, the Tropical Spice Plantation tour guide.
The cashew nut is one of the most expensive nuts grown on the plantations.
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The fruit looks like a bright red bell and the nut hangs underneath. The fruit is used for cooking and is also fermented into the Goan alcohol called fenny. Two teaspoons of cashew fenny are also mixed with sugar and given to sick children.
“It’s very, very good for coughs, bad stomachs, fever and emotions,” Gonsalvez said.
The 100-acre Tropical Spice Plantation pays no salary to its workers. It operates on a two-thirds, one-third profit share with the 15 extended families that work on the farm.
Four brothers, who are seventh generation spice farmers in the former Portuguese colony, own the 130-acre Sahakari Spice Farm.
The fruit of the nutmeg plant can be turned into a pickle and the seed dried and used for flavouring.
Nutmeg fruit contains two spices in one: nutmeg and mace.
The inner seed is the nutmeg and surrounding it is mace. The fruit is split open when fully matured and the two are separated.
The mace powder is used as a poor man’s Viagra and a sleeping pill. Take a little and it will aid sleep; too much and “you won’t see 2011,” Gonsalvez said.
The bright yellow turmeric powder is used in cooking, for Hindu marriage ceremonies and as an antiseptic. It is also used to stop bleeding and control coughs.
Cumin is good in curry, but in India it’s also used for massage and to help cure sinus problems.
“A curry massage before a bath helps you sleep like a baby,” Gonsalvez said.
Cardamom is called the queen of spices because of its sweet delicate nature. The tiny shoots grow from the base of the plant and its seeds are used as a sweetener and to improve memory and cure depression.
Pepper is the king of the spices because of its hot fiery nature. A little pepper mixed with water and left overnight helps cured indigestion.
Lemon grass is used as a tea but also helps relieve headaches, upset stomachs and skin problems.
Ten drops of almond oil and two drops of lemon grass extract mixed together will cure skin problems, said Sara Bhushan, the Sahakari tour guide.
The leaves of the cinnamon tree are used as a type of bay leaf. It’s the bark of the tree that is harvested and dried as cinnamon.
Cinnamon oil is a common massage oil in India.
Leaves from the curry tree are used for flavouring in southern Indian cooking, but can help reduce cholesterol when mixed with coconut oil. Eight to 10 leaves a day is said to control diabetes.
The beetle nut palm produces bright orange nuts, which are dried, ground and used as a digestive and as a substitute for chewing tobacco.
