Black Pepper

Black pepper (Piper nigrum) is a flowering vine in the family Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit, the peppercorn, which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning. The fruit is a drupe about 5 mm in diameter when fresh and fully mature, dark red, with a stone that encloses a single seed. Black pepper is indigenous to the tropical evergreen forests of the Malabar Coast in southwestern India. Black pepper is produced from the still-green, unripe drupe of the pepper plant. The drupes are cooked briefly in hot water, both to clean them and to prepare them for drying. During drying, the pepper skin around the seed shrinks and darkens into a thin, wrinkled black layer containing melanoidin. Black pepper is one of the most commonly traded spices in the world. Today, pepper accounts for one-fifth of the world's spice trade. In 2023, world production of black peppercorns was 855,105 tonnes, led by Vietnam with 30% of the total.

More than a hundred compounds have been reported in black pepper oil. The oil is dominated by monoterpene hydrocarbons (47-64%) followed by sesquiterpene hydrocarbons (30-47%). The main components frequently mentioned in the oil seem to be β-caryophyllene, limonene, β-pinene, α-pinene, δ-3-carene, sabinene, and myrcene with great variations in their percentages. These variations could be attributed to differences in environmental factors, plant variety, cultivation practices, harvesting stage, and method of extraction. In five oils from the east coast of Madagascar, the major components were α-pinene (5.1-28.7%), β-caryophyllene (8.7-25.6%), limonene (15.1-19.5%), β-pinene (9.1-15.3%), and δ-3-carene (9.0-12.8%). A steam-distilled oil from India contained β-caryophyllene (23.98%), limonene (14.36%), α-terpinene (13.26%), caryophyllene oxide (8.04%), and α-pinene (5.0%). Hydrodistillation of Piper nigrum fruits grown in Cameroon produced an oil made of δ-3-carene (18.5%), limonene (14.7%), β-caryophyllene (12.8%), and sabinene (11.2%), among others. A cluster analysis of oil compositions revealed four clearly defined clusters based on the relative concentrations of the major components.

Caryophyllene, more formally (-)-β-caryophyllene, is a natural bicyclic sesquiterpene that occurs widely in nature. Caryophyllene is one of the chemical compounds that contributes to the aroma of black pepper. Rotundone, a bicyclic sesquiterpene, was identified as the potent aroma compound responsible for pepper aromas in grapes, wine, herbs, and spices, including peppercorns.

Piperine is an alkaloid extracted from the plant Piper nigrum, and it is responsible for the pungency of black pepper. Its spiciness is a different kind of spiciness from that of capsaicin, characteristic of chilli peppers. The amount of piperine varies from 1-2% in long pepper to 5-10% in commercial white and black peppers. Due to its poor solubility in water, piperine is typically extracted from black pepper by using organic solvents like dichloromethane or ethanol.

This note in PREMIEREPEAU. Albâtre Sépia. Sample all seven extraits in the Discovery Set.