malabathron

chained_bear commented on the word malabathron

"The Romans called at any one of nineteen ports in which, in the words of Periplus, 'great ships sail ... due to the vast quantities of pepper and malabathron.* ... There were spices from the north, costus and nard from the Himalayan foothills, and still others arriving from further east (including, quite possibly, Moluccan cloves and nutmeg, although there are questions over their identification in Rome before the fourth century AD). But it was pepper that was Malabar's chief attraction."

"*Malabathron is cinnamon leaf, sometimes called 'Indian leaf,' prized on account of its potent aromatic oil. It is the leaf of one of several relatives of cinnamon native to India."

--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 61

November 30, 2016