1. Etymology

2. Varieties
     Black pepper    White pepper    Green pepper    Wild pepper    Orange pepper and red pepper    Pink pepper and other plants used as pepper  

3. Plants

4. Production and trade

5. History
    Ancient times  Postclassical Europe  China 

6. Phytochemicals, folk medicine and research
    Nutrition 

7. Flavor

8. See also

9. References

10. Bibliography

11. External links

Black pepper (Piper nigrum) is a flowering vine in the family Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit, which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning, known as a peppercorn. When fresh and fully mature, it is about {{convert|5|mm|in|abbr=on}} in diameter and dark red, and contains a single seed, like all drupes. Peppercorns and the ground pepper derived from them may be described simply as pepper, or more precisely as black pepper (cooked and dried unripe fruit), green pepper (dried unripe fruit), and white pepper (ripe fruit seeds).

Black pepper is native to present day Kerala in Southwestern India^[2][3] and is extensively cultivated there and elsewhere in tropical regions. Vietnam is the world's largest producer and exporter of pepper, producing 34% of the world's P. nigrum crop as of 2013.

Dried ground pepper has been used since antiquity both for its flavour and as a traditional medicine. Black pepper is the world's most traded spice, and is one of the most common spices added to cuisines around the world. Its spiciness is due to the chemical piperine, not to be confused with the capsaicin characteristic of chili peppers. It is ubiquitous in the modern world as a seasoning and is often paired with salt.

Etymology

The word pepper has roots in the Sanskrit word pippali for long pepper.^[4][5][6] Ancient Greek and Latin turned pippali into the Greek πέπερι peperi and then into the Latin piper, which the Romans used for both black pepper and long pepper, erroneously believing that both came from the same plant.

From its Sanskrit roots, today's "pepper" is derived from the Old English pipor^[7] and from Latin, which is the source of Romanian piper, Italian pepe, Dutch peper, German Pfeffer, French poivre, and other similar forms.^[7]

In the 16th century, people began using pepper to also mean the unrelated New World chili pepper (genus Capsicum). People have also used pepper in a figurative sense to mean "spirit" or "energy" at least as far back as the 1840s. In the early 20th century, this shortened to "pep".^[7]

Varieties

Black pepper

Black pepper is produced from the still-green, unripe drupes of the pepper plant. The drupes are cooked briefly in hot water, both to clean them and to prepare them for drying. The heat ruptures cell walls in the pepper, speeding the work of browning enzymes during drying. The drupes dry in the sun or by machine for several days, during which the pepper skin around the seed shrinks and darkens into a thin, wrinkled black layer. Once dry, the spice is called black peppercorn. On some estates, the berries are separated from the stem by hand and then sun-dried without the boiling process.

Once the peppercorns are dried, pepper spirit and oil can be extracted from the berries by crushing them. Pepper spirit is used in many medicinal and beauty products. Pepper oil is also used as an ayurvedic massage oil and in certain beauty and herbal treatments.

White pepper

White pepper consists solely of the seed of the pepper plant, with the darker-coloured skin of the pepper fruit removed. This is usually accomplished by a process known as retting, where fully ripe red pepper berries are soaked in water for about a week, during which the flesh of the pepper softens and decomposes. Rubbing then removes what remains of the fruit, and the naked seed is dried. Sometimes alternative processes are used for removing the outer pepper from the seed, including removing the outer layer through mechanical, chemical, or biological methods.^[8]

Ground white pepper is used in Chinese and Thai cuisine, but also in salads, cream sauces, light-coloured sauces, and mashed potatoes (where black pepper would visibly stand out). White pepper has a different flavour from black pepper; it lacks certain compounds present in the outer layer of the drupe.

Green pepper

Green pepper, like black, is made from the unripe drupes. Dried green peppercorns are treated in a way that retains the green colour, such as treatment with sulphur dioxide, canning, or freeze-drying. Pickled peppercorns, also green, are unripe drupes preserved in brine or vinegar. Fresh, unpreserved green pepper drupes, largely unknown in the West, are used in some Asian cuisines, particularly Thai cuisine. Their flavour has been described as spicy and fresh, with a bright aroma.^[9] They decay quickly if not dried or preserved.

Wild pepper

Wild pepper grows in the Western Ghats region of India. Into the 19th century, the forests contained expansive wild pepper vines, as recorded by the Scottish physician Francis Buchanan (also a botanist and geographer) in his book A journey from Madras through the countries of Mysore, Canara and Malabar (Volume III).^[10] However, deforestation resulted in wild pepper growing in more limited forest patches from Goa to Kerala, with the wild source gradually decreasing as the quality and yield of the cultivated variety improved. No successful grafting of commercial pepper on wild pepper has been achieved to date.^[10]

Orange pepper and red pepper

Orange pepper or red pepper usually consists of ripe red pepper drupes preserved in brine and vinegar. Ripe red peppercorns can also be dried using the same colour-preserving techniques used to produce green pepper.^[11]

Pink pepper and other plants used as pepper

"Pink peppercorns" are the fruits of a plant from a different family, the Peruvian pepper tree, Schinus molle, or its relative the Brazilian pepper tree, Schinus terebinthifolius. As they are members of the cashew family, they may cause allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis, for persons with a tree nut allergy.

The bark of Drimys winteri ("canelo" or "winter's bark") is used as a substitute for pepper in cold and temperate regions of Chile and Argentina, where it is easily available.

In New Zealand, the seeds of kawakawa (Macropiper excelsum), a relative of black pepper, are sometimes used as pepper, and the leaves of Pseudowintera colorata (mountain horopito) are another replacement for pepper.

Several plants in the United States are used also as pepper substitutes, such as Lepidium campestre, Lepidium virginicum, shepherd's purse, horseradish, and field pennycress.

Plants

The pepper plant is a perennial woody vine growing up to {{convert|4|m|ft|abbr=on}} in height on supporting trees, poles, or trellises. It is a spreading vine, rooting readily where trailing stems touch the ground. The leaves are alternate, entire, {{convert|5|to|10|cm|abbr=on}} long and {{convert|3|to|6|cm|abbr=on}} across. The flowers are small, produced on pendulous spikes {{convert|4|to|8|cm|abbr=on}} long at the leaf nodes, the spikes lengthening up to {{convert|7|to|15|cm|abbr=on}} as the fruit matures.^[15]