Types of Spices and Herbs

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The great variety of herb and spice flavors are produced from nearly all parts of plants, from the leaves to the roots. Among those producing fragrant leaves are basil, rosemary, sage, savory, tarragon, and thyme, all of which are small annual or perennial plants. Bayleaf, or sweet laurel, used to flavor meats, sauces, and vinegars, comes from a shrub or tree.

Among the many spices derived from the ripe fruit or seeds of plants are aniseed (see Anise), caraway seed, chili peppers, coriander seed, dillseed (see Dill), fennel seed, juniper berry, mustard seed, nutmeg, pepper, poppy seed, and sesame seed. Licorice-flavored aniseed, which comes from Pimpinella anisum, a member of the carrot family, is used whole for baking and as an essential oil in candies and the liquors absinthe and anisette. Juniper berry, used to flavor gin, comes from the low evergreen shrub Juniperus communis. The strongest mustard seed comes from black mustard, Brassica nigra, which was probably the large plant mentioned in the Bible and which now grows in Israel to a height of 3.7 m (12 ft). Mustard seed releases its pungent flavor when its powder is moistened. The flavor is preserved by lemon juice, vinegar, or wine in prepared mustard. Nutmeg is the seed of an apricotlike fruit of the tropical evergreen tree Myristica fragrans. The red sheath around the seed is made into mace, another spice used to flavor pickles, ketchups, and sauces. Sesame seeds were ground into flour by the Egyptians and used by the Chinese 5000 years ago. The pearly, nut-flavored seeds, used especially in Middle Eastern cooking, come from the annual Sesasmun indicum and are scattered by the drying pod, making hand harvesting necessary.

Among the spices derived from roots are garlic and ginger. Garlic, Allium sativum, which is a bulb made up of many cloves and closely related to the onion, originated in Central Asia and is one of the oldest spices. Ginger comes from the fleshy, aromatic, bulblike rhizomes of the perennial Zingiber officinale. The rhizomes are sold commercially as gingerroot or dried and ground into ginger powder. The essential oil is used to make ginger-flavored beverages, sauces, and chutneys.

Culinary herbs are such as basil, bergamot, borage, caraway, chamomile, chervil, cicely, cinnamon, coriander, cress, cumin, dill, fennel, lemon balm, marjoram, mint, mustard, parsley, rosemary, sage, spearmint, summer savory, sweet woodruff, tarragon, thyme, and wild bergamot.

learn more: Herbs; Spices.

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