,
São Tomé Island. Melegueta pepper is commonly used in the cuisines of
West and
North Africa, from where it has been traditionally transported by
camel caravan routes through the
Sahara desert and distributed to Sicily and the rest of Italy. Mentioned by
Pliny as "African pepper" but subsequently forgotten in Europe, they were renamed "grains of paradise" and became a popular substitute for
black pepper in Europe in the 14th and 15th centuries. The
Ménagier de Paris recommends it for improving wine that "smells stale". Through the Middle Ages and into the early modern period, the theory of the
four humors governed theories about nourishment on the part of doctors, herbalists, and druggists. In this context, John Russell characterized grains of paradise in
The Boke of Nurture as "hot and moist". In 1469, King
Afonso V of Portugal granted the monopoly of trade in the
Gulf of Guinea to
Lisbon merchant
Fernão Gomes. This included the exclusivity in trade of
Aframomum melegueta, then called malagueta pepper. The grant came at the cost of 100,000 annually and agreement to explore of the coast of Africa per year for five years; this gives some indication of the European value of the spice. After
Christopher Columbus reached the New World in 1492 and brought the first samples of the chili pepper (
Capsicum frutescens) back with him to Europe, the name , and Spanish and Portuguese spelling, was then applied to the new chili "pepper" because its
piquancy was reminiscent of grains of paradise. This namesake, the
malagueta chili, remains popular in
Brazil, the
Caribbean, Portugal, and
Mozambique. The importance of the
A. melegueta spice is shown by the area's designation from the
St. John River (near present-day
Buchanan) to
Harper in Liberia as the Grain Coast or Pepper Coast in honor of the availability of grains of paradise. Later, the craze for the spice waned, and its uses were reduced to a flavoring for sausages and beer. In the 18th century, its importation to Great Britain collapsed after an act of Parliament during the reign of
George III forbade its use in
alcoholic beverages. In 1855, England imported about per year legally (
duty paid). The presence of the seeds in the diets of
lowland gorillas in the wild seems to have some sort of beneficial effect on their
cardiovascular health. They also eat the leaves and use them for bedding material. The absence of seeds in the diets of captive lowland gorillas may contribute to their occasionally poor cardiovascular health in zoos. Today, the condiment is sometimes used in gourmet cuisine as a replacement for pepper, and to give a unique flavor in some
craft beers,
gins, and Norwegian .
Alton Brown is a fan of the condiment, and he uses it in
okra stew and his apple-pie recipe on an episode of the TV cooking show
Good Eats. ==Folk medicine and ritual uses==