Black Pepper

Incredibly popular black pepper, often referred as aking of spicea, is a well-known spice since ancient times. The peppercorn plant is native to tropical evergreen rain forest of south indian state, kerala, from where it spread to rest of the world. The pepper fruit, also known as the peppercorn, is actually a berry obtained from pepper plant. Botanically, peppercorn belongs to the family of piperaceae of the genus of piper; and known scientifically as piper nigrum.

It is a perennial vine and climber that requires supporting tree or pole to grow in height; thus it has similar growth characteristics that of beetle leaf plant. The pepper plant start producing small round berries after about three to four years ofaplantation. Technically, the pepper berry is a drupe, measuring about 5 mm in diameter, containing a single large seed at its center.

The color ofapeppercorns found in the markets are nothing but the same pepper fruit, which picked up from the plant at different stages of maturity and subjected to different methods of processing. In general, the peppercorns were harvested while half-matured and just about to turn red. They are then left to dry under the sun light until they become shrivel and turns black (black peppercorns). Alternatively, green peppercorns are picked while the berries still unripe and green. The white peppercorn got its name when a completely ripe berry soaked in the brine in order to remove its dark, outer skin, exposing inner white-color pepper seed.

Black peppers have a strong pungent flavor that comes to them from volatile-oils, such as piperine. In case of ground peppercorns, these volatile oils may disappear because of evaporation of these compounds if kept open in the air for extended periods.

Cubeb or tailed pepper berries are dried unripe fruits of the piper cubeba vine that is grown mainly indonesian rain forest. They appear similar to black peppercorns but have a characteristic stalk which is often interpreted as a "tail." cubeb berries have a distinctive flavor rich in monoterpene essential oil, cubebene.

Peppercorns contain an impressive list of plant derived chemical compounds that are known to have disease preventing and health promoting properties. Peppers have been in use since centuries for its anti-inflammatory, carminative, anti-flatulent properties.

Peppercorns are composed of health benefiting essential oils such as piperine, an amine alkaloid, which gives strong spicy pungent character to the pepper. It also contains numerous monoterpenes hydrocarbons such as sabinene, pinene, terpenene, limonene, mercene, etc., which altogether gives aromatic property to the pepper.

The above-mentioned active principles in the pepper may increase the gut motility as well as the digestion power by increasing gastro-intestinal enzyme secretions. It has also been found that piperine can increase absorption of selenium, b-complex vitamins, beta-carotene, as well as other nutrients from the food.

Black peppercorns contain a good amount of minerals like potassium, calcium, zinc, manganese, iron, and magnesium. Potassium is an important component of cell and body fluids that helps controlling heart rate and blood pressure. Manganese is used by the body as a co-factor for the antioxidant enzyme, superoxide dismutase. Iron is essential for cellular respiration and blood cell production.

They are also an excellent source of many vital b-complex groups of vitamins such as pyridoxine, riboflavin, thiamin and niacin.

Peppercorns are a good source of many anti-oxidant vitamins such as vitamin-c and vitamin-a. They are also rich in flavonoid polyphenolic anti-oxidants like carotenes, cryptoxanthin, zea-xanthin and lycopene. These compounds help the body remove harmful free radicals and help protect from cancers and diseases.

Pepper increases the hydrochloric acid secretion in the stomach, thereby facilitating digestion.

Proper digestion is essential to avoid diarrhea, constipation and colic.

Pepper also helps to prevent the formation of intestinal gas, and when added to a personas diet, it can promote sweating and urination, which remove toxins from the body.

Sweating removes toxins and cleans out the pores of any foreign bodies that may have lodged there, and it can also remove excess water or accumulation, also known as edema.

In terms of urination, you can remove uric acid, urea, excess water, and fat, since 4% of urine is made of fat.

For digestion, inducing digestion can help you lose weight and increase the overall functioning of your body and prevent various gastrointestinal conditions and colorectal cancer.

Its ability to expel gas is because black pepper is a carminative, which forces gas out of the body in a healthy, downward motion, rather than pressing upwards in a dangerous way and straining the upper chest cavity and vital organs.

It also inhibits more gas from forming in the body.

The piperine content of black pepper makes it a great digestive.

It stimulates the taste buds to signal the stomach to produce more hydrochloric acid.

This acid is essential to digest proteins and other foods in the stomach, which when left undigested cause flatulence, indigestion, diarrhea, constipation and acidity.

The excess hydrochloric acid secreted helps in preventing these conditions.

To aid in digestion, add a tablespoon (depending on the number of servings being prepared) of freshly ground pepper powder to your meal, while cooking.

It will add to the flavour of the dish and keep your stomach healthy.

The outer layer of peppercorn assists in the breakdown of fat cells.

Therefore, peppery foods are a good way to help you shed weight naturally.

When fat cells are broken down into their component parts, they are easily processed by the body and applied to other, more healthy processes and enzymatic reactions, rather than simply sitting on your body and making you look overweight.

Ditch those anti dandruff shampoos, try using pepper instead. Because of its antibacterial and anti inflammatory properties, pepper is great to get rid of dandruff.

Mix a teaspoonful of crushed black pepper in a cup of curd.

Mix well and apply on the scalp.

Leave in for about half an hour.

Rinse out your hair well.

Do not use shampoo at this stage.

Wash your hair with shampoo the next day.

Make sure you do not use too much pepper, it may cause your scalp to burn.

Due to its antibacterial properties, black pepper is a very effective natural remedy to cure colds and coughs.

Its warm, spicy flavour also helps loosen phlegm and relieve a stuffy nose.

Try sprinkling freshly ground pepper on hot soup or rasam.

It will immediately loosen up the phlegm and help you breathe easier.

Pepper helps to cure vitiligo, which is a skin disease that causes some areas of skin to lose its normal pigmentation and turn white.

According to researchers in london, the piperine content of pepper can stimulate the skin to produce pigment.

Topical treatment of piperine combined with ultra violet light therapy is much better than the other harsher, more chemically-based treatments for vitiligo.

It also reduces the chances of skin cancer due to excessive ultraviolet radiation.

The journal of food and chemical toxicology reported that the compound piperine in black pepper increases the cognitive function of the brain and helps beat depression.

It was also found that pepper eaten on a regular basis helps the brain function properly.

Add it to your daily meal, or eat it as seasoning on a salad.

Pepper in any form can help make you smarter and less depressed.

In ayurvedic practices, pepper is added to tonics for colds and coughs.

Pepper also provides relief from sinusitis and nasal congestion.

It has an expectorant property that helps to break up the mucus and phlegm depositions in the respiratory tract, and its natural irritant quality helps you to expel these loosened material through the act of sneezing or coughing, which eliminates the material from the body and helps you to heal from whatever infection or illness caused the deposition in the first place.

The antibacterial property of black pepper helps to fight against infections and insect bites.

Pepper added to the diet helps to keep your arteries clean by acting in a similar way to fiber and scraping excess cholesterol from the walls, thereby helping to reduce atherosclerosis, the condition highly responsible for heart attacks and strokes.

An antioxidant like pepper can prevent or repair the damage caused by the free radicals and thus help to prevent cancer, cardiovascular diseases and liver problems.

Free radicals are the byproducts of cellular metabolism that attack healthy cells and cause their dna to mutate into cancerous cells.

Antioxidants like black pepper neutralize these harmful compounds and protect your system from many conditions, even premature aging symptoms like wrinkles, age spots, macular degeneration, and memory loss.

Black pepper helps in transporting the benefits of other herbs to different parts of body, maximizing the efficiency of the other health foods that we consume.

That is why adding it to foods not only makes them taste delicious, but also helps make those nutrients more available and accessible to our system.

Piperine, one of the key components of black pepper, has been shown in numerous studies to reduce memory impairment and cognitive malfunction.

Chemical pathways in the brain appear to be stimulated by this organic compound, so early research demonstrates the possibility for pepper to benefit alzheimeras patients and those that are suffering from dementia and other age-related or free radical-related malfunctions in cognition.

A number of studies have shown that black pepper may have beneficial effects on gastric mucosal damage and peptic ulcers, due to its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.

More research is still being done on this aspect of black pepper health effects.

Peppers have been used therapeutically in dentistry as an antiseptic for tooth-decay and gum swellings.

Peppercorns are also being used as traditional medicines in treating flatulence and indigestion, however, there is little or no data to support these claims in modern medicine.

Lack pepper is one of the most versatile spices used in virtually in all kinds of savoury cooking. In order to keep their fragrance and flavor intact, they are generally ground just before preparing dishes and added at the last minutes in the recipes (since prolonged cooking results in evaporation of essential oils).