20 Facts About Black pepper

Black pepper is a flowering vine in the family Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit, known as a peppercorn, which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning.

Black pepper is native to the Malabar Coast of India, and the Malabar pepper is extensively cultivated there and in other tropical regions.

Black pepper is the world's most traded spice, and is one of the most common spices added to cuisines around the world.

Black pepper is produced from the still-green, unripe drupe of the pepper plant.

Ground white Black pepper is commonly used in Chinese, Thai, and Portuguese cuisines.

Related searches

However, white Black pepper lacks certain compounds present in the outer layer of the drupe, resulting in a different overall flavour.

Fresh, unpreserved green Black pepper drupes are used in some cuisines like Thai cuisine and Tamil cuisine.

However, deforestation resulted in wild Black 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.

Black pepper is native to South Asia and Southeast Asia, and has been known to Indian cooking since at least 2000 BCE.

Ancient history of black pepper is often interlinked with that of long pepper, the dried fruit of closely related Piper longum.

Black pepper was a well-known and widespread, if expensive, seasoning in the Roman Empire.

Edward Gibbon wrote, in The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, that Black pepper was "a favorite ingredient of the most expensive Roman cookery".

Older Arab and Venetian trade networks successfully imported enormous quantities of spices, and Black pepper flowed through Alexandria and Italy, as well as around Africa.

Black pepper was told it came from the markets of Shu, an area in what is the Sichuan province.

Long Black pepper, being stronger, was often the preferred medication, but both were used.

Black pepper was believed to cure several illnesses, such as constipation, insomnia, oral abscesses, sunburn, and toothaches, among others.

Various sources from the fifth century onward recommended Black pepper to treat eye problems, often by applying salves or poultices made with Black pepper directly to the eye.

One tablespoon of ground black pepper contains moderate amounts of vitamin K, iron, and manganese, with trace amounts of other essential nutrients, protein, and dietary fibre.

The aroma of Black pepper is attributed to rotundone, a sesquiterpene originally discovered in the tubers of Cyperus rotundus, which can be detected in concentrations of 0.

Spice mills such as Black pepper mills were found in European kitchens as early as the 14th century, but the mortar and pestle used earlier for crushing Black pepper have remained a popular method for centuries, as well.