Pepper
Family Piperaceae
Piper nigrum, pepper (P. nigrum 1), is a perennial woody climber, up to 10 m. tall, with alternate simple leaves and inconspicuous flowers borne in axillary inflorescences. The fruit is a sessile drupe (P. nigrum 2), 4-6 mm across, turning red when ripe. Fruits are arranged on fruiting spikes, 6-15 cm long, each fruit containing a single seed, 3-4 mm across. Pepper contains the alkaloids piperine and piperidine. The pungency is due to a resin and the odour to a volatile oil.
Distribution
Peper is a native of India, where it grows wild in Assam and also in North Burma. Hindu colonists probably took it to Java somewhere between the 1st and 6th century AD. Marco Polo reported pepper in Malaysia in 1280. In the 16th century pepper was grown on West India’ s Malabar coast.
Use
Pepper is one of the oldest and most important of spices. Black pepper is the whole dried fruit, (P. nigrum 5); white pepper is the fruit which has been retted in water and the pericarp removed. Both are ground and used in powdered form as a condiment with extensive culinary uses. Pepper was one of the first articles of commerce between the East and Europe. In the Middle Ages it helped to overcome the smell of bad food and was used medicinally to cure fever. Peppercorns (P. nigrum 3) were extremely expensive by that time, and it was mainly for the search of spices that Columbus was sent to discover the spice islands in 1492. But in stead of discovering the spice islands, he discovered the West Indies. In 1498 Vasco da Gama sailed for the same reason round Africa and he succeeded in discovering the source of pepper. The trade monopoly fell in Portuguese hands and they retained it until the 17th century. Later the Dutch captured much of the trade, but they never succeeded in maintaining a complete monopoly as they did with cloves and nutmegs. The Dutch established large plantations on Java and Sumatra (P. nigrum 4), but at the same time the British did so in Malaysia. During the 20th century pepper has been introduced into most tropical countries.
All over the world pepper is used as a condiment, and is used in pickles, ketchups and sauces. Pepper oil is distilled from the fruits and is used in perfumery. India and Indonesia are the biggest exporters of pepper; the biggest importers are the US, Germany and the UK.