Pepper

Pepper is a plant of the Piperaceae family, cultivated for its fruits, which are then dried to be used as spices. The same fruit, through different processing procedures, is used to produce white pepper, black pepper and green pepper. The plant is native to southern India and is cultivated extensively both in India and in tropical countries. The ripe fruit looks like a dark red berry, has a diameter of about five millimeters and contains a single seed. Pepper is one of the most common spices in European cuisine and its derivatives have been known and appreciated since ancient times both for their flavor and for their use in Ayurvedic medicine. Its spicy taste is given by piperine.

Pepper has been used as a spice in India since prehistoric times. It was first cultivated, most likely, along the Malabar coasts of India, currently corresponding to the state of Kerala. Pepper was a prized commodity and was often called black gold and used as a currency. Until well after the Middle Ages, all black pepper found in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa came from the Malabar region of India. From the 16th century pepper was also imported from Indonesia, Madagascar, Malaysia and other South East Asian states. The latter states mostly traded with China or used it for domestic consumption. Black pepper, together with other spices produced in India and South East Asian countries, changed the history of the world. The obstinate search by European states for the route to the Indies and the consequent colonization of those countries was due to the preciousness of spices, as had previously happened with the American continent.