Nutmeg: Flavor, Chemistry, the Banda Islands and Safe Use

The warm, faintly sweet seed you grate over eggnog and into béchamel has one of the most violent histories in the spice trade. Nutmeg is the dried seed kernel of Myristica fragrans, an evergreen tree native to the Banda Islands in Indonesia’s Maluku province, and the Dutch East India Company’s conquest of those islands in 1621 left it holding a world monopoly.¹ One fruit gives you two spices: the red, lacy aril wrapped around the seed is dried separately and sold as mace. It isn’t dangerous used as recommended, but eaten by the spoonful, nutmeg is a poison.

At a glance

Measured values

9 figures, sourced

Measure	Value	Scope	Source
Essential (volatile) oil	5–15 % of the kernel	FAOSources differ; do not merge with the PROSEA figure	fao.org
Essential oil	5 g per 100 g edible portion (about)	PROSEASources differ; do not merge with the FAO range	uses.plantnet-project.org
Essential oil: monoterpene hydrocarbons	61–88 % of the oil	FAO	fao.org
Essential oil: aromatic ethers (myristicin, elemicin, safrole)	2–18 % of the oil	PROSEA	uses.plantnet-project.org
Fixed oil	25–40 % of sound nutmegs	FAO	fao.org
Volatile oil, minimum (whole or ground nutmeg) Limit	6.5 mL per 100 g	Canada Food and Drug Regulations, section B.07, in force 2006 until December 2024Historical legal minimum, no longer in force	laws-lois.justice.gc.ca
Moisture, maximum (whole or ground nutmeg) Limit	8 %	Canada Food and Drug Regulations, section B.07, in force 2006 until December 2024Historical legal maximum, no longer in force	laws-lois.justice.gc.ca
Aflatoxin B1, maximum Limit	5.0 µg/kg	EU Regulation 2023/915, nutmeg	eur-lex.europa.eu
Total aflatoxins (B1, B2, G1, G2), maximum Limit	10.0 µg/kg	EU Regulation 2023/915, nutmeg	eur-lex.europa.eu

Each figure is quoted as its source states it, with the samples or standard it applies to. Where sources differ, both are shown; nothing is averaged. All measured values

What nutmeg is

The nutmeg tree is usually dioecious, which means male and female flowers grow on separate trees. Its fruit is a fleshy drupe. When it splits open, you see a bright red, net-like aril partly wrapped around a dark brown to black, shiny seed coat. Inside that hard coat, the “shell,” is the kernel. The spice traded as nutmeg is only the dried kernel. In Grenada, nutmegs are dried and stored in the shell and only cracked, sorted and shelled when an order comes in.⁷

The aril becomes mace. For how the two compare in the kitchen, see mace vs. nutmeg.

Flavor and aroma

Nutmeg has a distinctive pungent fragrance and a warm, slightly sweet taste. In cooking it comes across as warm, woody and faintly sweet, and it turns harsh if you overdo it.

The compounds

Nutmeg’s smell lives in its volatile oil. The kernel also carries a lot of fixed oil (fat), which is a separate thing:

These ranges come from different samples and methods, so don’t merge them. FAO names α-pinene, β-pinene and sabinene as the major monoterpenes and myristicin as the main aromatic ether in the general literature. But in one study of Grenadian oils, elemicin was the main aromatic ether in both nutmeg and mace oil. The main component of the fixed oil, sold as nutmeg butter, is trimyristin.⁴

Where it’s grown changes the oil. Work summarized by FAO found West Indian oils weaker-smelling and less spicy than East Indian oils, with less α-pinene, safrole and myristicin and more sabinene.⁴

You’ll often read that myristicin is what gives nutmeg its flavor. The sources above don’t support that: myristicin is a minor part of an oil dominated by monoterpenes. It matters for toxicology, which we get to under Safety.

Origin and history

Where it comes from

Kew gives nutmeg’s native range as Maluku, specifically the Banda Islands, and lists it as introduced in places like Mauritius, Réunion, Java, Thailand and the Philippines.² PROSEA notes that nutmeg is only known from cultivation and most likely came from the southern Moluccas, especially Ambon and Banda.³ FAO adds that it’s seldom found truly wild. The Banda group is nine islands in the Banda Sea, southeast of Ambon, with volcanic soils that suit nutmeg well.

The Banda monopoly

Nutmeg’s history is one of the most violent chapters of the spice trade, and it gets retold with plenty of errors. Here’s what the sources support:

• 1512. The Portuguese reached Banda and, per PROSEA, got a monopoly on nutmeg; Britannica says the Portuguese annexed the islands that year.³⁸
• Early 1600s. The Dutch pushed out the Portuguese early in the 17th century and took over the monopoly.
• 1616. Run, one of the five Bandanese nutmeg islands, became an English colony.
• 1621. The Dutch East India Company’s Governor-General, Jan Pieterszoon Coen, ordered the capture of the whole archipelago. A chapter in The Cambridge World History of Genocide describes the result as a genocide that destroyed Bandanese civilization: many elites were killed or enslaved, and much of a population of about 15,000 people died or fled.¹ A 2025 study of the conquest estimates that 90 percent of the indigenous population died, and that the Company then brought in enslaved people to work the plantations.⁹ The Company took Run the same year without English permission.
• After 1621. With the Banda lands in its hands, the Company held a world monopoly on nutmeg and mace.
• 1667. In the Peace of Breda, England ceded Run to the Dutch in a settlement under which the Dutch gave up New Amsterdam, today’s New York.¹⁰ That’s where the often-told “nutmeg for Manhattan” story comes from, though the treaty was a wider settlement than a straight swap.
• 1772 and 1802. PROSEA says the French broke the monopoly in 1772 and the British ended it in 1802, during their rule of Indonesia.³ England and the Netherlands traded control of the islands several times before the Treaty of Paris returned them to the Dutch in 1814.

Into the Caribbean

Nutmeg was being planted on St. Vincent as early as 1802, and the first nutmeg planted in Grenada came from seeds brought from Banda in 1843. Grenada grows only the Banda type and became the biggest nutmeg grower in the West Indies, second only to Indonesia worldwide (FAO, 1995).¹¹ The tree is why Grenada is called the Isle of Spice.

You’ll see a claim that the Roman writer Pliny described nutmeg as a nut with two flavors. We couldn’t trace it to Pliny’s text or to any scholarly source, so we’re not repeating it.

Production

We couldn’t find a recent official world figure for nutmeg alone. PROSEA estimates annual world production at about 17,000 tonnes of nutmeg and 3,000 tonnes of mace, with about 60% of the nutmeg and mace on the world market coming from Indonesia and 30% from Grenada. The entry gives no year for those shares, and its most recent dated figures are from 1994, so the estimate is old.³

India publishes its own numbers. The Spices Board’s latest table gives nutmeg at 19,325 tonnes from 26,604 hectares in 2024-25 (final) and an advance estimate of 19,329 tonnes from 26,520 hectares for 2025-26.¹² The table doesn’t say whether that’s shelled kernel, in-shell nut or includes mace, so don’t compare it directly with PROSEA’s world estimate.

How nutmeg is used

In most countries grated nutmeg flavors confectionery in small amounts, and in western Europe it also goes into meat dishes and soups. FAO’s utilization tables list cakes and cookies, cabbage and other sulfur-rich foods, eggnog, ice cream and milk pudding, and, in industry, sausages, soups, prepared sauces and ketchup. In Grenadian rum punch, FAO says, nutmeg is obligatory.¹³

• Sweet. Custards, cakes, cookies, spice cakes and eggnog, plus pumpkin pie and gingerbread.
• Savory and dairy. Scalloped potatoes, glazed carrots and creamed spinach. A pinch goes into white sauces and cheese sauces too.
• Blends and spiced dishes. Saveur’s Cincinnati chili uses nutmeg with cinnamon, allspice and cloves,¹⁴ and Saveur’s garam masala grinds in a whole nutmeg with cardamom, black cumin, pepper, cloves and cinnamon.¹⁵ See also pumpkin pie spice and quatre épices.

Technique

Buy whole nutmeg and grate it straight into the dish. A few strokes on a fine grater give you more control than a shaker. Nutmeg is strong, so add a little, let it cook in, taste, and add more. For whole versus ground, see fresh vs. ground nutmeg. For more ideas, see nutmeg uses and cooking with nutmeg. If a dish has gone over, see too much nutmeg.

Buying and quality

Grenada’s export grades, as FAO recorded them in 1995, show how the trade sorts nutmeg:¹⁶

From 2006 until December 2024, Canada’s Food and Drug Regulations required nutmeg, whole or ground, to contain at least 6.5 mL of volatile oil per 100 g and no more than 8% moisture.¹⁷ That was a legal minimum, not an average of what’s on shelves.

Adulteration: PROSEA notes that seeds of several other Myristica species turn up as adulterants or stand-ins for true nutmeg, among them M. malabarica, the “Bombay nutmeg” of India’s west coast.³ When you buy whole nutmegs, look for ones that are heavy and intact.

Storage

Keep nutmeg tightly covered, somewhere dark and away from heat and steam. Whole nutmeg keeps longer than ground, but most of the shelf-life figures floating around can’t be traced, and the named ones disagree. The full comparison, and what makes nutmeg fade, are in how to store nutmeg. The simple test: grate a little and smell it.

Safety

Aflatoxin

Nutmeg is one of only a few spices named in the EU’s aflatoxin limits: 5.0 µg/kg for aflatoxin B1 and 10.0 µg/kg for the sum of aflatoxins B1, B2, G1 and G2, under Regulation (EU) 2023/915.⁶ The problem is mold in the supply chain. A 2015 survey of stored nutmeg kernels in North Sulawesi, Indonesia, found aflatoxin B1 and total aflatoxin relatively high in several samples from farmers and exporters.¹⁸

The EU has had Indonesian nutmeg under stepped-up border checks for aflatoxin since July 2012, citing a continuous high frequency of non-compliance.¹⁹ Checks rose to 50% of consignments in June 2024 and were cut to 30% in June 2026.²⁰²¹ The full timeline is on how to store nutmeg.

Myristicin and nutmeg intoxication

Eaten by the spoonful, nutmeg is a poison. The Tennessee Poison Center names myristicin and elemicin as the main ingredients of concern in ground nutmeg and says the body converts myristicin into MMDA, a compound with hallucinogenic properties. PROSEA puts nutmeg’s hallucinogenic properties down to the aromatic ethers safrole, myristicin and elemicin.³ Symptoms usually show up 3 to 8 hours after eating it,²² and the Missouri Poison Center says the episode usually clears within 24 to 36 hours.²³ The National Capital Poison Center lists nausea, vomiting, agitation, prolonged drowsiness and coma as possible, and also says nutmeg isn’t dangerous when used as recommended.²⁴

How much it takes depends on who you ask, so here are the figures side by side:

The Missouri Poison Center puts one whole nutmeg at 6 to 7 g.²³ PROSEA repeats that two ground nutmegs, which it puts at about 8 g, “is said to” cause death. The entry hedges that claim, and its weight per nutmeg doesn’t match Missouri’s.³ Keep nutmeg and mace out of children’s reach.²⁴

Safrole

Nutmeg oil contains safrole.³ EU law bans adding safrole to food as such and caps it in some compound foods, but those caps don’t apply when the only flavorings added are fresh, dried or frozen herbs and spices.²⁵ So the EU regulates added safrole, not the safrole that comes along with a grating of nutmeg.

Health claims

Nutmeg often gets credit for easing gas, nausea and poor digestion. We found no regulator summary or systematic review backing those claims, and we’re not claiming nutmeg treats or prevents any condition.

Substitutes and comparisons

Mace is the closest substitute, since it comes from the same fruit. It tastes lighter; chemically, its oil carries a higher share of aromatic ethers than nutmeg oil from the same tree.⁴ See nutmeg substitutes for the ranked list, and:

• Mace vs. nutmeg
• Allspice vs. nutmeg
• Cinnamon vs. nutmeg
• Nutmeg vs. cloves

Footnotes

1. Frank Dhont, “Genocide in the Spice Islands”, The Cambridge World History of Genocide, Cambridge University Press, 2023. cambridge.org · Peer-reviewed ↩ ↩²

2. Myristica fragrans Houtt., Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. powo.science.kew.org · Reference work ↩ ↩²

3. M. Flach and M. Tjeenk Willink, Myristica fragrans, Plant Resources of South-East Asia (PROSEA). uses.plantnet-project.org · Reference work ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹²

4. Production, handling and processing of nutmeg and mace, Section VI: Composition and constituents, FAO. fao.org · Reference work ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

5. 21 CFR 182.10, Spices and other natural seasonings and flavorings, FDA. ecfr.gov · Regulator ↩

6. Commission Regulation (EU) 2023/915, European Commission. eur-lex.europa.eu · Regulator ↩ ↩²

7. Production, handling and processing of nutmeg and mace, Section III: Post harvest handling, FAO. fao.org · Reference work ↩

8. “Banda Islands”, Encyclopaedia Britannica. britannica.com · Reference work ↩

9. Yuwono and ter Braake, “Conquest of the Banda Islands by the Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (1609–1621)”, Journal of Indonesian History, 2025. journal.unnes.ac.id · Peer-reviewed ↩

10. “Run”, Atlas of Mutual Heritage. atlasofmutualheritage.nl · Reference work ↩

11. G.B. Marcelle, Production, handling and processing of nutmeg and mace, Section I, FAO, 1995. fao.org · Reference work ↩

12. Spice wise area and production in India, 2021-22 to 2025-26, Spices Board India. indianspices.com · Regulator ↩

13. Production, handling and processing of nutmeg and mace, Section VII: Utilization of products, FAO. fao.org · Reference work ↩

14. “Cincinnati Chili”, Saveur. saveur.com · Publication ↩

15. “Garam Masala”, Saveur, 2014. saveur.com · Publication ↩

16. Production, handling and processing of nutmeg and mace, Section IV: Classes of obtainable products, FAO. fao.org · Reference work ↩

17. Food and Drug Regulations, section B.07.026, Government of Canada. laws-lois.justice.gc.ca · Regulator ↩

18. Dharmaputra et al., BIOTROPIA, 2015. journal.biotrop.org · Peer-reviewed ↩

19. Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2016/24, European Commission. legislation.gov.uk · Regulator ↩

20. Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/1662, European Commission. eur-lex.europa.eu · Regulator ↩

21. Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/1206, European Commission. eur-lex.europa.eu · Regulator ↩

22. Nena Bowman, “Nutmeg, a Potentially Uninvited Holiday Guest?”, Tennessee Poison Center, 2020. vumc.org · Reference work ↩ ↩²

23. “Nutmeg Abuse”, Missouri Poison Center, 2022 (updated 2026). missouripoisoncenter.org · Reference work ↩ ↩² ↩³

24. Rose Ann Gould Soloway, “Kitchen surprises and cautions”, National Capital Poison Center. poison.org · Reference work ↩ ↩²

25. Regulation (EC) No 1334/2008, Annex III, European Union. eur-lex.europa.eu · Regulator ↩

Also drawn on

• Nutmeg (Britannica Editors, updated 17 Aug 2026), Encyclopaedia Britannica. britannica.com
• McCormick Ground Nutmeg, 1.1 oz (product page), McCormick. mccormick.com
• Add a Little Spice to Your Life! Part II (news release, Anna Martin, March 2002), University of California Cooperative Extension, San Joaquin County. ucanr.edu
• Production, handling and processing of nutmeg and mace and their culinary uses, Introduction, FAO. fao.org