Spices: History and Structure

The purpose of this section is to place some of the key facts mentioned in the text in chronological order.

500-1500's: Much trading through land routes through Baghdad to Constantinople (Istanbul), then by sea to Venice. Venice monopolizes spice trade.
1487: Bartolemeu Diaz (Portugal) rounded southern tip of Africa
1492: Christopher Columbus (Spain) 'discovers' Americas. Brought chili peppers back.
1493: Pope Alexander VI issues a decree dividing ownership of newly discovered lands.
1498: Vasco da Gama (Portugal) starts voyage around Africa to spice islands and back, beginning ~150 year dominance of spice trade.
1512: Afonso de Albuquerque (Portugal) reaches source of nutmeg.
1519: Ferdinand Magellan (Spain) began first successful circumnavigation of globe.
1600's: Dutch begin takeover of spice trade.
1667: Dutch gain complete monopoly of spice trade by treaty with English, giving up New Amsterdam (New York) for the Island of Run (Treaty of Breda).
1770: Clove seedlings smuggled out of Moluccas by French and successfully planted in Mauritius.

Shown below are stick pictures and 3-dimensional representations of the chemical compounds responsible for the odor and taste of some spices.

Sea Route to Spice Islands (a simple map)
Short description and map of Spain & Portugal treaties
Map showing land & sea trade routes
A site including information on peppers.
Molecular Models - by Dave Woodcock, Okanagan Univ. College. Most of the 3D models on this site were taken from here.
Nutmeg - by Robert John Lancashire, Univ. of the West Indies
Molecules in Motion - By Henry Rzepa, Imperial College, London
Chemistry, Structure, and 3D Molecules
A collection of chemical structures - Lebanon Valley College
A technical paper includes structures of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine.
Sudafed web site - explains new formula