Spice

In the culinary arts, a spice is any seed, fruit, root, bark, or other plant substance in a form primarily used for flavoring or coloring food. Spices are distinguished from herbs, which are the leaves, flowers, or stems of plants used for flavoring or as a garnish. Spices and seasoning do not mean the same thing, but spices fall under the seasoning category with herbs. Spices are sometimes used in medicine, religious rituals, cosmetics, or perfume production. They are usually classified into spices, spice seeds, and herbal categories. For example, vanilla is commonly used as an ingredient in fragrance manufacturing. Plant-based sweeteners such as sugar are not considered spices.

Spices can be used in various forms, including fresh, whole, dried, grated, chopped, crushed, ground, or extracted into a tincture. These processes may occur before the spice is sold, during meal preparation in the kitchen, or even at the table when serving a dish, such as grinding peppercorns as a condiment. Certain spices, like turmeric^{[dubious – discuss]}, are rarely available fresh or whole and are typically purchased in ground form. Small seeds, such as fennel and mustard, can be used either in their whole form or as a powder, depending on the culinary need.

A whole dried spice has the longest shelf life, so it can be purchased and stored in larger amounts, making it cheaper on a per-serving basis. A fresh spice, such as ginger, is usually more flavorful than its dried form, but fresh spices are more expensive and have a much shorter shelf life.

There is not enough clinical evidence to indicate that consuming spices affects human health.

India contributes to 75% of global spice production. This is reflected culturally through its cuisine. Historically, the spice trade developed throughout the Indian subcontinent as well as in East Asia and the Middle East. Europe's demand for spices was among the economic and cultural factors that encouraged exploration in the early modern period.

Although defining spice is difficult, varying definitions cover several common aspects. One such aspect is the biological source of spices: the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) identifies the source as vegetables, while Redgrove (1933) is more specific as to the part of the plant, specifically the root, rhizome, flower, fruit, seed and bark when they are dried, in contrast with herbaceous parts which constitute herbs. The Oxford Companion to Food challenges spices as sourced from plants being a hard rule, pointing to ambergris being often identified as a spice despite its animal origin.

Another aspect is the geographical source: The OED specifies spices are sourced from the tropics, while The Oxford Companion to Food gives the example of caraway seeds as demonstrating that spices can come from temperate climes. The notion that spices have a tropical origin is historic: originally "spice" was understood as a type of merchandise from the Orient. As Europeans encountered the Americas, beginning the Columbian exchange, the meaning expanded to capture new aromatics, and the meaning later shifted again to refer to culinary use. This historic development has led to some ingredients indigenous to European cooking such as garlic and horseradish not being considered spices despite sharing many attributes.

Archeological study of early spice use is difficult, as spices were used in small quantities, leaving few preserved remains.