Toxicity of nutmeg (myristica fragrans houtt)

Now adays nutmeg (Myristica fragrans Houtt), isconsidered one of the most important spices in the kitchen.It is used as a flavouring agent to increase the palatabi-lity and odour of coocked food. Due to the presence ofnutmeg in most of the kitchens, and the presence also ofpet animals in the houses, they are liable to lik nutmegpowder, thus toxicity or even death results. Human beingsmay be also subjects of toxicity due to bad usage.In these studies, the volatile oil of nutmeg pre-pared by distillation was used. Experiments were done withwhite rats.Our study consisted of four parts:1. Part I: 1. Extraction and determination of the activeprinciples of nutmeg volatile oil.Nutmeg was finely ground and volatile oils wereextracted by distillation using the medthod of Carson(1959). The amount of volatile oils was calculated. It was7.19 ± 0.42 % of volatile oil from finelly gl’ound nutmeg.2. Distinguishing the sources of nutmegIn this part the volatile oil previously extractedfrom nutmeg sample was used. The method applied was that