Long pepper

Long pepper (Piper longum), sometimes called Indian long pepper or pipli, is a flowering vine in the family Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit, which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning. Long pepper has a taste similar to, but hotter than, that of its close relative Piper nigrum - from which black, green and white pepper are obtained.

Description

The plant is a slender, creeping vine, rooting at the nodes. The leaves are entire, alternate and heart-shaped. The flowers are borne in spikes, with separate male and female spikes. The fruits are small and spherical, about 2.5 cm in length, and hang in long, loose, slender spikes like catkins. They become yellowish grey when ripe. The seeds are hard, white and oily.

Cultivation and uses

Long pepper is cultivated for its fruit, which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning. When fully mature, it is about the size of a poppy seed. The fruit, known as a peppercorn when dried, is approximately 5 millimetres (0.20 in) in diameter, dark red when fully mature, and, like all drupes, contains a single seed. Peppercorns, and the powdered pepper derived from grinding them, may be described as black pepper, white pepper, red/pink pepper, green pepper, and very often simply pepper.

History

The word pepper originated from the Sanskrit word pippali, meaning berry. It has been used in Indian cooking since at least 2000 BCE. J. Innes Miller notes that while pepper was grown in southern Thailand and in Malaysia, its most important source was India, particularly the Malabar Coast, in what is now the state of Kerala.

Medicinal uses

In Ayurvedic medicine, long pepper is called pippali. Dried long pepper berries are light to dark grey, pointed at one end, while white pepper consists of the seed of the pepper plant alone, with the darker-coloured skin of the pepper fruit removed.

See also

• Black pepper
• White pepper
• Green pepper
• Pink pepper

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