List of Australian herbs and spices
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Australian herbs and spices were traditionally used by Aborigines, especially to flavour food in ground ovens. The term "spice" is applied generally to the non-leafy range of strongly flavoured dried Australian bushfoods. They mainly consist of aromatic fruits and seed products although Australian wild peppers also have spicy leaves. In addition, there are a small number of aromatic leaves but unlike culinary herbs from other cultures which often come from small soft-stemmed forbs, the Australian herb species are generally trees from rainforests, open forests and woodlands.
Australian herbs and spices are generally dried and ground to produce a powdered or flaked spice, either used as single ingredient or in blends.
They were used to a limited extent by colonists in the 18th and 19th Centuries. Some extracts were used as flavouring during the 20th Century. However, Australian native spices have become more widely recognized and used by non-indigenous people since the early 1980s as part of the bushfood industry, with increasing gourmet use and export.
They can also be used as a fresh product. Leaves can be used whole, like a bay-leaf in cooking, or spicy fruits are added to various dishes for flavour.
The distilled essential oils from leaves and twigs are also used as flavouring products.
Fruit
- Acronychia acidula, Lemon Aspen
- Citrus australasica, Finger Lime
- Citrus australis,Lime
- Citrus glauca, Desert Lime
- Eupomatia laurina, Bolwarra
- Solanum centrale, Akudjura
- Syzygium luehmannii, Riberry
Herbs
- Mentha australis, River Mint
- Ocimum tenuiflorum, Native Thyme
- Prostanthera incisa var. incisa, Cut-leaf Mintbush
- Prostanthera rotundifolia, Native Thyme
Spices
- Acacia victoriae, Gundabluey, Wattleseed
- Backhousia citriodora, citral chemovar, Lemon Myrtle
- Backhousia myrtifolia, elemicin chemovar, Cinnamon Myrtle
- Eucalyptus dives, piperitone chemovar, Peppermint Gum
- Eucalyptus globulus, cineole chemovar, Tasmanian Blue Gum
- Eucalyptus olida, methyl cinnamate chemovar, Strawberry Gum
- Eucalyptus polybractea, Blue-leaved Mallee
- Eucalyptus staigeriana, Lemon Ironbark
- Melaleuca quinquenervia, Broad-leaf Paperbark
- Melaleuca leucadendron, Weeping Paperbark
- Syzygium anisatum, trans-E-Anethole chemovar, Aniseed myrtle
- Tasmannia lanceolata, Mountain Pepper
- Tasmannia stipitata, Dorrigo Pepper
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