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Indian Spices paid important role in the history of various lands, discovered or destroyed, kingdoms built or brought down, wars won or lost, treaties signed or flouted, favours sought or offered. Spices have also played a political role in the history. The use of spices from the East became a status symbol by the year 1200 and the European preoccupation with the world of spice was born. The use of spice in food meant money and power, and the desire to acquire these precious status symbols led to world exploration pan-global communication, trade, alliances and wars.
Indian Spices also fitted into philosophic concepts of improving health, since it was understood that they could affect the four humors (blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile) and influence the corresponding moods (sanguine, phlegmatic, choleric and melancholic). Thus, ginger would be used to heat the stomach and improve digestion; clove was believed to comfort the sinus; mace would prevent colic and bloody fluxes or diarrhea; nutmeg would benefit the spleen and relieve any bad cold.
Cinnamon, one of the most popular flavors in cooking, was considered to be particularly good for digestion and for sore throats. Hot pungent spices were used more liberally in winter diets or to treat cold diseases accompanied by excess phlegm. It is noteworthy that rheumatism was believed to be caused by abnormal rheum, or phlegm; the appropriate therapy would be pepper just as it is today, with the topical use of capsaicin - a chili pepper extract.
