black pepper, (Piper nigrum), perennial climbing vine of the family Piperaceae and the hotly pungent spice made from its fruits. Widely used as a spice around the world, pepper also has a limited usage in medicine as a carminative (to relieve flatulence) and as a stimulant of gastric secretions.
In early historic times pepper was widely cultivated in the tropics of Southeast Asia, where it became highly regarded as a condiment. Pepper became an important article of overland trade between India and Europe and often served as a medium of exchange; tributes were levied in pepper in ancient Greece and Rome. In the Middle Ages the Venetians and the Genoese became the main distributors in Europe, and their virtual monopoly of the trade helped instigate the search for an eastern sea route. The plant is widely cultivated throughout Indonesia and has been introduced into tropical areas of Africa and of the Western Hemisphere.
The black pepper plant is a woody climber and may reach heights of 10 metres (33 feet) by means of its aerial roots. Its broad shiny green leaves are alternately arranged. The small flowers are in dense slender spikes of about 50 blossoms each. The fruits, which are sometimes called peppercorns, are drupes about 5 mm (0.2 inch) in diameter. They become yellowish red at maturity and bear a single seed. Their odour is penetrating and aromatic; the taste is hot, biting, and very pungent. Ground black pepper contains up to 3 percent essential oil that has the aromatic flavour of Capsicum peppers but not the pungency. The characteristic flavour is principally derived from the chemical piperine, though the seeds also contain chavicine, piperidine, and piperettine.
