INSTITUTE OF FOOD TECHNOLOGY
Black pepper is a flowering vine in the family piperaceae,
cultivated for its fruit which is usually dried and used as
a spice and seasoning. When dried the fruit is known as a
peppercorn. When fresh and
fully mature, it is approximately 5 millimeters, (0.20in) in
diameter, dark red and like all drupes contains a single
seed. Peppercorns and the ground pepper derived from them
may be described simply as pepper, or more precisely as
black pepper, green pepper and white pepper. Black pepper is
native to south India and is extensively cultivated there
and elsewhere in tropical regions .Black pepper is the
world's most traded spice. It is one of the most common
spices added to cuisines around the world. Dried ground
pepper has been used since antiquity for both its flavor and
as a traditional medicine.
VARITIES OF PEPPER
1- 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 from drying;
the drupes are dried in the sun or by machine for several
days, during which the pepper around the seed shrinks and
darkens into a thin, wrinkled black layer. Once dried, the
spice is called black peppercorn.
2- White pepper- White pepper consists solely of the seed of
the pepper plant, with the darker colored skin of the pepper
fruit removed. This is usually accomplishedly a process
known as retting, where fully ripe red pepper berries are
soaked in water for about a week, during which the flesh of
pepper softens and decomposes.
3- Green Pepper- Green pepper, like black, is made from the
unripe drupes. Dried green peppercorns are treated in a way
that retains a green color, such as treatment with sulphur
dioxide, canning or freeze-drying. Pickled peppercorn also
green, are unripe drupes preserved in brine or vinegar.
4- Wild Pepper-Wild pepper grows in the western Ghats
region of India .Into the 19th
century ,the forest contain expansive wild pepper vines, as
recorded by
the Scottish physician FRANCIS BUCHANAN in his book ,A
journey from
madras through the countries of Mysore, Canada and Malabar.
5- Orange pepper And Red pepper-Orange or red pepper usually
consists of ripe red drupes preserved in brine or vinegar.
Ripe red peppercorns can also be dried using the same color
preserving techniques used to produce green pepper.
6- Pink pepper and other plant used as pepper-Pink pepper
from piper nigrum is distinct from the more common dried
”pink peppercorns”, which are actually the fruit of a plant
from a different family, the Peruvian pepper tree, schinus
molle, or its relative the Brazilian pepper tree, Schinus
terebinthifolius.
Regions of origin-Peppercorns are often categorized by their
place of origin. Two types come from India's Malabar Coast.
Sarawak pepper is native to the Malaysian portion of Borneo.
White muntok pepper comes from Indonesia. Kampot pepper is
native to kampot.