PEPPER
PIPER NIGRUM
PIPERACEAE
The pepper is a spice of the oldest and most important;
300 BC, the Greeks used it.
In the Middle Ages, only the very rich could get them, some tributes and rents were paid in pepper.
Venice and the guild of pepper in London enriched considerably by ensuring its trade with the Arabs, but thanks to Vasco da Gama in which the Portuguese had for two centuries the monopoly from 1500 to 1700, then it was the Dutchman.
The pepper is a vine native to western India (the Malabar coast) and Burma.
Very quickly spread throughout Southeast Asia, it thrives in humid equatorial areas with little seasonal variation.
A wild vine clings to the trees to 10-15 m tall.
Herbal Medicine
If P. NIGRUM is the true pepper, other species are sometimes substituted for it:
P. Longum (India, Himalayas, Ceylon)
P. RETROFACTUM (Indonesia and Malaysia)
P. SAIGONENSE (Vietnam)
P. CUBEB (Indonesia)
P. Clusii and P. guineense (Africa).
Other PIPERACEAE are commonly used: P. BETL (chewing) and P. methysticum (see KAVA).
That crop has long been present many varieties;
in general it is a woody vine that attaches to the brackets by small lateral branches,
leaves oval, alternate with a pointed apex,
inflorescence in the ears (like kittens) opposite leaves;
fruit (berry), 4 to 10 mm in diameter, turn from green to red to black during ripening.
Green pepper is very aromatic and slightly spicy, it is stored in aqueous solution.
Black pepper powder is completely dried fruit.
White pepper powder is the fruit wall, but first treated with water to get rid of its envelopes and then dried.
COMPOSITION AND CHEMICAL PROPERTIES
The aroma of pepper is the smell of the oil (see glossary) (1 to 3%) terpene-rich carbides (see glossary) (cadinene, phellandrene); its burning taste is mainly due to an alkaloid ( see glossary), the piperidine, and other amides (5 to 10% by weight)
Pepper is a stomachic (see glossary) which seems to help in the digestion of fats and sugars.
The piperidine is a depressant of the central nervous system and an anti-convulsant in animals.
Derivatives of this molecule have been experienced in Asia in the treatment of epilepsy.
Pepper is often part of drugs of Indian medicine (Ayurveda) in Europe but we no longer consider it an herbal commme from its current use as a culinary spice (which may seem a mistake, because the pepper seems to modify the bioavailability of drugs in the gastrointestinal tract).
USES
Formerly it was used both to protect themselves from the plague of venereal disease or to bring down fever.
It is still considered an aphrodisiac and it is certainly a culinary spice that gives the appetite, enhances the taste of bland food and digestion amélore hearty meals cooked in fat. It must nevertheless be consumed in moderation, abuse is the cause of gastroduodenal disorders (gastritis toxic) or hemorrhoidal crisis
0 commentaires