The Spice Pantry: Black Pepper

Piper nigrum

Also, Known As:

• Black Pepper

The common herbal product known as the black pepper is a well-known spice around the world and is used in almost every home, this herb is native to southern India, though it is now cultivated widely in many tropical countries of the world. The plant itself is a perennial woody climbing vine which can reach a height of about 15 ft or 5 meters climbing on trees and along man-made wooden trellises. The herb bears characteristic and large oval-shaped leaves, it also has spikes of many small and white colored flowers, the commercial pepper itself is made from the many clusters of small round fruits borne on the plant, these small fruits are the pepper of common use, and these fruits ripen from a green to red coloration as they mature on the vine.

The black pepper vine is not only economically interesting…