Lecture 10: Spices 2 Flashcards
The Ottoman Empire ca. 1453 began to obstruct both the ______ and ______ thus spurring exploration motivated by the finding of ______.
Spice Route, Silk Road, sea route around Africa.
The _______ is the earliest surviving map showing Portuguese Discoveries in the east and west.
Cantino World Map of 1502
______ discovered America while trying to find a new route to spice-land (Asia).
Columbus (1451-1506)
______ did the first travel around the globe while trying to find a new route to spice-land (Asia).
Magellan 1468-1521
True or False: The spice trade has been THE major economic force that spurred geographical exploration on Earth until a few centuries ago.
True
______ led to the colonization of the New World and it opened the colonial period and imperialism in the history of humanity.
Spice trade
_____ is an orchid native to Veracruz (Mexico). Used as a spice are the dried capsules that look like pods.
Vanilla
The ____ people were the first to cultivate vanilla.
Totonac
True or False: In the 15th century, vanilla was used for flavoring, perfume, and as medicinal.
True
1519- Spanish Conquistador Hernandez Cortez first met the Aztec Emperor Montezuma II who offered it to smoke tobacco and a cup of chocolate, _______ made from cocoa and flavored with vanilla, hot chillies, and aromatic herbs.
xocolatl
________ is currently responsible for the vast majority of the world’s vanilla production and 58% of the world total vanilla fruit production.
Madagascar
The oldest documented and most expensive spice today is?
Saffron
Saffron as a spice and medicinal has been documented in ______ and _______.
Middle East and N Africa
Why is saffron the most expensive spice?
Because each flower’s 3 stigmas need to be collected by hand
How many flowers does it take to make 1 kg of saffron?
200 000
15-20$/g
The first perfume was ______ with religious/ritual use
Incense
When were perfumes first used and by who?
Egyptians and Mesopotamians
4000ya
The ______ developed floral scents that were mixtures of oil and crushed herbs and petals.
Greeks & Romans
True or False: The idea that perfumes and cosmetics were a feminine art developed later.
True
The Persian chemist Avicenna (980-1037) introduced the process of extracting fragrance from flowers by means of ______, the procedure most commonly used today.
distillation
Why do flowers smell?
To attract pollinators, which can recognize plants by their scent
The fragrance is given by essential oils (often volatile compounds) produced by secretory tissues.
______ ravaged Europe and Asia from the 14th to 19th century killing up to 60% of the Europe’s population thought to be caused by a bad odour
Black death
How did people try and combat black death?
Doctors prescribed using strong natural odours to combat the disease-causing odour.
The rich carried small boxes with myrrh, violet, mint, lemon balm to be inhaled as an antidote for the disease
How does headspace analysis work? (4 steps)
Odour molecules floating
around the flower are sucked into an airtight glass container
The molecules are passed through a filter where they get stuck
A sample of captured molecules is collected in a vial and subjected to gas chromatography and mass spectroscopy
Molecules can be analyzed and synthetically replicated
What is incorrect about this statement: Saffron results from the dried stamens of Crocus sativum
Dried stigmas
Who invented floral perfumes?
The ancient Romans and the Greeks
