Spices
Spices are strongly flavoured or aromatic parts of plants used in small quantities in food as preservatives, or as a flavouring in cooking. Spices are often used in perfumes and cosmetics, and many have been used in various medicines and in various religious rituals as well.
Spices are distinguished from other plant products used for similar purposes, such as herbs (which are green, leafy parts of plants), aromatic vegetables and dried fruits.
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Tea
Sri Lanka is the third largest producer of tea and the industry is one of the country's main sources of foreign exchange, wiht tea accounting for 15% of the GDP of the country.
In 1995, Sri Lanka was the world's leading exporter of tea with 23% of the total world export.
The humidity, cool temperatures, and rainfall in the country's central highlands provide an ideal climate that favors the production of high quality tea.
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Essential Oils
An essential oil is a concentrated hydrophobic liquid containing volatile aroma compounds from plants. Essential oils are also known as volatile oils, ethereal oils or aetherolea, or simply as the "oil of" the plant from which they were extracted, such as oil of clove. An oil is "essential" in the sense that it carries a distinctive scent, or essence, of the plant. Essential oils do not form a distinctive category for any medical, pharmacological, or culinary purpose.
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