Piper nigrum

Effects

Overview

Black pepper (Piper nigrum) is a flowering vine in the family Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit (the peppercorn), which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning. The fruit is a drupe (stonefruit) which is about 5 mm in diameter (fresh and fully mature), dark red, and contains a stone which encloses a single pepper seed. 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), or white pepper (ripe fruit seeds).[1] WP⚠ The source also gives this in other units.

Black pepper is native to South Asia. Ground, dried, and cooked peppercorns have been used since antiquity, both for flavour and as a traditional medicine. Black pepper is one of the most commonly traded spices in the world. Its spiciness is due to the chemical compound piperine, which is a different kind of spiciness from that of capsaicin characteristic of chilli peppers. It is ubiquitous in the Western world as a seasoning and is often paired with salt and available on dining tables in shakers or mills. WP

History

History

Black pepper has been known to Indian cooking since at least 2000 BCE. J. Innes Miller notes that pepper was grown in southern Thailand and in Malaysia starting in early 10th to the 11th century, when the South Indian kings began to extend their empire. The crop was brought to East Malaysia in 1840 by Chinese settlers; its most important source was India, particularly the Malabar Coast, in what is now the state of Kerala. The lost ancient port city of Muziris of the Chera Dynasty, famous for exporting black pepper and various other spices, is mentioned in a number of classical historical sources for its trade with the Roman Empire, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Levant, and Yemen.[2–8] WP

The ancient history of black pepper is often interlinked with (and confused with) that of long pepper, the dried fruit of closely related Piper longum. The Romans knew of both and often referred to either as just piper. In fact, the popularity of long pepper did not entirely decline until the discovery of the New World and of chilli peppers. Chilli peppers—some of which, when dried, are similar in shape and taste to long pepper—were easier to grow in a variety of locations more convenient to Europe. Before the 16th century, pepper was being grown in Java, Sunda, Sumatra, Madagascar, Malaysia, and everywhere in Southeast Asia. These areas traded mainly with China, or used the pepper locally. Ports in the Malabar area also served as a stop-off point for much of the trade in other spices from farther east in the Indian Ocean. The Maluku Islands, historically known as the "Spice Islands", are a region in Indonesia known for producing nutmeg, mace, cloves, and pepper, and were a major source of these spices in the world. The presence of these spices in the Maluku Islands sparked European interest to buy them directly in the 16th century.[9][10] WP

Black pepper was a well-known and widespread, if expensive, seasoning in the Roman Empire. Apicius' De re coquinaria, a third-century cookbook probably based at least partly on one from the first century CE, includes pepper in a majority of its recipes. In the 18th century, Edward Gibbon wrote that pepper was "a favorite ingredient of the most expensive Roman cookery".[11] WP

In the third century CE, black pepper made its first definite appearance in Chinese texts, as hujiao or "foreign pepper". It does not appear to have been widely known at the time, failing to appear in a fourth-century work describing a wide variety of spices from beyond China's southern border, including long pepper. By the 12th century, however, black pepper had become a popular ingredient in the cuisine of the wealthy and powerful, sometimes taking the place of China's native Sichuan pepper (the tongue-numbing dried fruit of an unrelated plant).[12] WP⚠ Wikipedia itself has flagged this text: citation needed.

Marco Polo testifies to pepper's popularity in 13th-century China, when he relates what he is told of its consumption in the city of Kinsay (Hangzhou): "... Messer Marco heard it stated by one of the Great Kaan's officers of customs that the quantity of pepper introduced daily for consumption into the city of Kinsay amounted to 43 loads, each load being equal to 223 lb." During the course of the Ming treasure voyages in the early 15th century, Admiral Zheng He and his expeditionary fleets returned with such a large amount of black pepper that the once-costly luxury became a common commodity.[13][14] WP⚠ The source also gives this in other units.

Pepper's exorbitant price during the Middle Ages – and the monopoly on the trade held by Venice – helped motivate the Portuguese to seek a sea route to India. In 1498, Vasco da Gama became the first person to reach India by sailing around Africa; asked by Arabs in Calicut (who spoke Spanish and Italian) why they had come, his representative replied, "we seek Christians and spices". Though this first trip to India by way of the southern tip of Africa was only a modest success, the Portuguese quickly returned in greater numbers and eventually gained much greater control of trade on the Arabian Sea, including through the 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas.[15] WP⚠ Wikipedia itself has flagged this text: citation needed.

However, the Portuguese monopolised the spice trade for 150 years. Portuguese even became the lingua franca of the then known world. The spice trade made Portugal rich. However, in the 17th century, the Portuguese lost most of their valuable Indian Ocean trade to the Dutch and the English, who, taking advantage of the Spanish rule over Portugal during the Iberian Union (1580–1640), occupied by force almost all Portuguese interests in the area. The pepper ports of Malabar began to trade increasingly with the Dutch in the period 1661–1663. WP⚠ Wikipedia itself has flagged this text: citation needed.

As pepper supplies into Europe increased, the price of pepper declined (though the total value of the import trade generally did not). Pepper, which in the early Middle Ages had been an item exclusively for the rich, started to become more of an everyday seasoning among those of more average means. Today, pepper accounts for one-fifth of the world's spice trade.[16] WP

Legal status

Pharmacology

Chemistry

Pop culture

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References

1. Other Harrison, Paul. What Are The Different Kinds of Peppercorns?. 27 January 2016
2. Other Aggarwal, Bharat B.; Kunnumakkara, Ajaikumar B. Molecular Targets and Therapeutic Uses of Spices: Modern Uses for Ancient Medicine. 2009
3. Journal / agency Izzah A.H., Asrina Wan W.Y. Black Pepper in Malaysia: An Overview and Future Prospects. Agricultural Reviews. 2019. doi:10.18805/ag.R-129
4. Other J. Innes Miller, The Spice Trade of the Roman Empire (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969), p. 80
5. Other Artefacts from the lost Port of Muziris." The Hindu. 3 December 2014
6. Other Muziris, at last?" R. Krishnakumar, Frontline, 10–23 April 2010. link 2 · link 3
7. Other Pattanam richest Indo-Roman site on Indian Ocean rim." The Hindu. 3 May 2009. link 2
8. Other Prof. George Menachery. Kodungallur – The Cradle of Christianity in India. 10 January 2001
9. Other Dalby, p. 93
10. Other The Spice Islands | Royal Museums Greenwich
11. Other Gibbon, Edward. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. 1873
12. Other Dalby, p. 77
13. Other Yule, Henry; Cordier, Henri, Translation from The Travels of Marco Polo: The Complete Yule-Cordier Edition, Vol. 2, Dover.. p. 204. link 2
14. Journal / agency Finlay, Robert. The Voyages of Zheng He: Ideology, State Power, and Maritime Trade in Ming China. Journal of the Historical Society. 2008. doi:10.1111/j.1540-5923.2008.00250.x
15. Other Prasad, p. 3
16. Other Jaffee, p. 10

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