Nutmeg has aromatic, stimulant, narcotic, carminative, astringent, aphrodisiac, hypolipidaemic, antithrombotic, anti-platelet aggregation, antifungal, antidysenteric, and anti-inflammatory activities.
Because of its aroma, nutmeg’s essential oil has been used as a natural flavoring extract and as a perfume in the cosmetic industries. In particular, the oil has been used as a flavoring agent, replacing ground nutmeg in order to avoid leaving particles in foods and beverages. Nutmeg essential oil is also used in the manufacturing of camphor, plasticizers, bases, solvents, perfume and synthetic pine oil.
Nutmeg oil consists of several chemical compounds which are plant synthesize and accumulate large amount of specialized (or secondary) metabolites. About 31.3% was terpinen-4-ol, reported that nutmeg oil has antifungal activity.
Essential oils serve as preservatives through their antimicrobial and antioxidant mechanisms as many of them are effective in retarding microbial growth, food oxidation, and rancidity, making them promising natural preservatives to be used in food industry.
The spicy nuts have fixed oil in the form of trimyristin and also essential (volatile) oils which gives sweet fragrant flavor to nutmeg. These active compounds in nutmeg have numerous curatives uses in traditional medicines as anti-depressant, anti-fungal, digestive, aphrodisiac, and carminative.
Since ancient times, in Chinese and Indian traditional medicines nutmeg and its oil were being used for illnesses associated to the digestive and nervous systems. The compounds such as elemicin and myristicin in this spice have stimulant as well as brain soothing properties.
Analyses of nutmeg seed essential oils have shown that alkylbenzes and arylproanoids predominate. Behavioral studies have shown that the compounds have strong sedative effects.
Nutmeg oil
