Pimento

The word ‘pimento’ is derived from pimienta, the Spanish word for peppercorns, which the spice somewhat resembles. The genus Pimenta Lindl belongs to the family Myrtaceae, which also includes the clove, Syzygium aromuticum.

The tree is indigenous in the West Indies and Central America, being most abundant in Jamaica, which is the major producer, and where much of the produce comes from semi-wild, trees. Although capsicum peppers and vanilla are also indigenous to the Western Hemisphere, these spices are produced in the greatest quantity elsewhere, and pimento is the only spice which is produced entirely in the New World.

An oil is extracted from the leaves which has been in commercial production in Jamaica since 1920. There was a considerable export of pimento saplings towards the end of the nineteenth century for use as walking sticks and umbrella sticks.

The leaves, borne in clusters at the ends of the branches, are simple, opposite, entire, thinly coriaceous, punctate with pellucid glands and are aromatic when crushed. The petiole is 1-1.5 cm long. The lamina is elliptic to elliptic-oblong, mostly 6-15 cm long and 3-6 cm wide, rounded at the apex and tapering at the base, dark green above, paler beneath, and pinnately veined, with the midrib impressed on the upper surface and prominent beneath, but the lateral veins are not very prominent.

The first record of what is probably pimento, occurs in the Journal of Columbus’s first voyage for 4 November 1492, in which he showed pepper (Piper nigrum) to Indians of Cuba, which he must have brought from Castile for this purpose, ‘and they recognized it, it is said, and by signs told him that in the neighbourhood there was much of it’ (Morison, 1963). It is presumed that they were talking of pimento.

According to Merrill (1947) the currently correct name for the pimento or allspice is Pimenta dioica (L.) Merr., for which the commonest synonyms are Myrtus pimento L., M. dioica L., Eugenia Pimenta DC. and Pimenta officinalis Lindl.