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| PEPPER | ||
| Piper nigrum | ||
| Part Used: Dried unripe fruit | ||
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The best Pepper of commerce
comes from Malabar. Pepper is mentioned by Roman writers in the fifth century.
It is said that Attila demanded among other items 3,000 lb. of Pepper in ransom
for the city of Rome. Untrained, the plant will climb 20 or more feet, but for
commercial purposes it is restricted to 12 feet. It is a perennial with a round,
smooth, woody stem, with articulations, swelling near the joints and branched;
the leaves are entire, broadly ovate, acuminate, coriaceous, smooth, with seven
nerves; colour dark green and attached by strong sheath-like foot-stalks to
joints of branches. Flowers small, white, sessile, covering a tubular spadix;
fruits globular, red berries when ripe, and surface coarsely wrinkled. The plant
is propagated by cuttings and grown at the base of trees with a rough, prickly
bark to support them. Between three or four years after planting they commence
fruiting and their productiveness ends about the fifteenth year. The berries are
collected as soon as they turn red and before they are quite ripe; they are then
dried in the sun. In England, for grinding they mix Peppers of different origin.
Malabar for weight, Sumatra for colour, and Penang for strength. Pepper has an
aromatic odour, pungent and bitterish taste.
Piperine, which is identical in composition to morphia, volatile oil, a resin called Chavicin. Its medicinal activities depends mainly on its pungent resin and volatile oil, which is colourless, turning yellow with age, with a strong odour, and not so acrid a taste as the peppercorn; it also contains starch, cellulose and colouring |
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