Pepper

Originally native to India, today also cultivated in Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and Brazil, the true pepper (Piper nigrum) grows as a perennial woody climbing plant up trees and reaches a height of up to 10 m. The plant develops round green drupes. The plant develops round, green drupes which are harvested 2 times/year. Worldwide, about 200,000 tons of pepper are produced annually. Green pepper is obtained from unripe, early harvested fruits. Black pepper is also obtained from the unripe (green) seeds that undergo a drying process to turn them black (Piper nigrum). White pepper is a ripe pepper without the skin. Red pepper consists of ripe, unpeeled peppercorns.

The pepper substances used for seasoning are essential oils with terpenes as well as alkaloids, mainly: piperine (6-8%), piperettine (0.5-0.8%), piperylin (about 0.3%) responsible.

Other components are beta-caryophyllene and limonene.

Pepper has an antimicrobial effect (in addition to its use as a spice, the antimicrobial, preservative property has been used for food of pepper).

Systemic food allergies to pepper are rare. Patients with celery-mugwort-spice syndrome may have antibodies to black pepper in about 25%. Occupational allergic rhinoconjunctivitis to white pepper has been described.

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The wing Somatic Mutation And Recombination Test (SMART) in Drosophila melanogaster was used to investigate the modulatory effect of capsicum (Capsicum annuum) and black pepper (Piper nigrum) in combination with the alkylating agent methyl methanesulfonate (MMS) and the promutagenic agent ethyl carbamate (EC). Suppression of metabolic activation or interaction with the active groups of the mutagens could be the mechanisms by which the spices exert their antimutagenic effects (Meghwal M et al. 2013).

1. Meghwal M et al. (2013) Piper nigrum and piperine: an update. Phytother Res 27:1121-1130.