DECK the halls, jingle the bells, and raise a holiday toast with a glass of
egg-nog鈥攖opped with its traditional dusting of hallucinogen. No, not the
booze. Nutmeg. That fragrant spice in your kitchen cabinet has a hidden
side鈥攁nd, when consumed in high doses, a mind-bending bang powerful enough
to melt your granny鈥檚 muffins.
How can this be? When chefs describe nutmeg, they use terms like 鈥渨arm,鈥�
鈥渟weet鈥� and 鈥渇ull-bodied鈥�. Physicians have their labels, too: 鈥渄elusional鈥�, for
instance, and 鈥減sychotic鈥�. Both camps are accurate. A sprinkle of nutmeg is
bitter-cinnamon delight. But a few teaspoons of the stuff can poison you,
because nutmeg contains compounds that carry an intense鈥攁nd rather
unpleasant鈥攈allucinogenic high.
鈥淣utmeg contains a volatile oil,鈥� explains David Seigler, a plant biologist
at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. And that oil includes
compounds such as myristicin and elemicin. In our bodies, some researchers
suggest, these two compounds break down into MMDA and TMA, psychoactive
substances that send a drug-like kick to the brain. People who swallow enough
nutmeg鈥攁bout 2 tablespoons of the ground spice, the equivalent of perhaps
a single nutmeg nut鈥攃an suffer hallucinations, nausea and heart
palpitations a few hours after indulging.
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That鈥檚 quite a potent punch from what is, after all, only the seed of an
evergreen tropical tree. Native to the East Indies, nutmeg trees now flourish in
the Caribbean, Brazil, India and Sri Lanka as well. The outer flesh of the
nutmeg fruit can be eaten as is, or preserved like candy. Inside sits the nutmeg
seed鈥攂ut not alone. A ruby-red membrane, called an aril, coils around the
pit, and is the source of another seasonal spice: mace. The nutmeg tree has the
distinction of yielding two quite separate spices.
Four centuries ago, the only nutmeg trees to be found fringed Run Island in
the Banda Sea, in what is now eastern Indonesia. At the time, nutmeg was
rumoured to cure various ills, including the plague that was then sweeping
across Asia and Europe. Eager for control of this precious resource, the British
and Dutch waged war.
Even back then, thrill seekers knew nutmeg鈥檚 secret kick, and more than a few
on both sides reportedly grew addicted. According to one account, Charles
Sackville, the sixth Earl of Dorset, regularly choked down spoonfuls of the
spice, and was once imprisoned after an evening of nutmeg frenzy for 鈥渞unning up
and down all night almost naked through the street鈥�.
More recently, during the psychedelic 60s, sensation seekers turned to nutmeg
as a cheap alternative to more conventional hallucinogens. One of Seigler鈥檚
friends spent several days in the hospital recovering from a severe nutmeg
experience. 鈥淗e was at a boys鈥� boarding school,鈥� Seigler says, 鈥渁nd they
couldn鈥檛 lay their hands on the standard drugs of the day.鈥� In prisons too,
nutmeg was among the accessible routes to chemically altered reality. The black
activist Malcolm X sampled the spice in a Boston jail. Jazz musician Charlie
Parker reportedly partook as well, washing his down with cola.
Despite its fragrance, nutmeg is no sweet high. Just ask emergency room
physician Lance Becker of the University of Chicago. Becker vividly recalls an
evening some eight years ago when a 23-year-old college student stumbled in
wailing: 鈥淚鈥檓 going to die, I鈥檓 going to die.鈥� The student had smashed a nutmeg
seed and swallowed about a quarter of it. By the time he got to the ER he was
sweating profusely, with pounding heart and skyrocketing blood pressure. The
hospital admitted him for the couple of days it took for his symptoms to
subside. Nutmeg is called the 鈥渟pice of madness鈥� for good reason, says
Becker.鈥漈his is not exactly a happy trip.鈥�
Indeed, reports of nutmeg intoxication鈥攊ncluding at least one
death鈥攃ontinue to crop up sporadically in the medical literature. In 1998,
researchers in Ireland and Norway published two case studies. Five years
earlier, doctors at Gordon Hospital in central London described an unfortunate
25-year-old man who had reportedly gobbled down just half a gram of nutmeg and
needed tranquillisers to calm his frazzled nervous system. Reports like these
suggest that nutmeg is usually a one-time high, notes Becker. 鈥淚 doubt there are
many people who do this more than once,鈥� he says.
Not for sheer pleasure, anyway. But nutmeg is also a popular ingredient in
folk medicine. In China, people take it to calm an upset stomach or relieve
rheumatism. South-east Asian villagers dine on rice cooked with nutmeg seeds as
a remedy for dysentery, anorexia and colic. Elsewhere, hopefuls have swallowed
nutmeg to boost libido. And in the early 1990s, researchers even found evidence
that myristicin鈥攆ound in parsley and carrots as well as
nutmeg鈥攊nhibits lung tumours in lab mice.
Most of us, though, restrict our use of nutmeg to the kitchen. If you have a
taste for nutmeg, go ahead and sprinkle it on your holiday feast. Egg-nog,
pumpkin pie and bread pudding, for instance, all beg for a little spicing up.
鈥淚f you have a reasonable diet and take in normal amounts of nutmeg, the spice
probably won鈥檛 affect you at all,鈥� says Mark Kantor, a nutrition specialist at
the University of Maryland in College Park. 鈥淩emember that almost anything can
be toxic if you consume too much of it.鈥� Do store your nutmeg far from the reach
of curious children, though. 鈥淜ids will swallow anything,鈥� warns Becker.
Perhaps that classic kitchen tome, The Joy of Cooking, says it best:
鈥淯se it sparingly鈥攂ut often.鈥�