ABSTRACT
Spices are high value and low volume commodities of commerce in the world market. The fast growing food industries around the world depend a lot on spices for imparting taste and flavor. Moreover, the increased preference of natural colors and flavors of plant origin over the synthetic products by the health conscious consumers in developed countries is slowly bringing momentum in this direction. Thus, spices emerge as one of the crucial building blocks in almost all food products in addition to their obvious use as functional foods, nutraceuticals, and sources of several high value phytochemicals.
