Black Pepper - The Essential Spice

A valuable commodity for 4000 years, black pepper still accounts for one-fifth of the world’s spice trade

- Jennifer Stackhouse

Pepper label

Common name : Pepper, black pepper

Botanical name: Piper nigrum

Family: Piperaceae (pepper family)

Aspect & soil: Shade; deep, well-drained soil

Best climate: Tropical to sub tropical

Habit: Evergreen vine

Propagation: Seed, cutting, grafting

Difficulty: Moderate

Though most of us use it every day, many know little about pepper, a spice derived from the peppercorn, which is actually a fruit produced by the flowers of a vine.

Pepper is native to South India and Asia but is grown commercially in many tropical areas, in particular in Southeast Asia. Vietnam is a major producer.

Used for thousands of years both as a taste enhancer and medicine, pepper has the honour of being billed as the most-traded spice.

As a sign of how important it was and how widely traded, pepper from India reached Egypt before 1213 BCE, as it was found in the nostrils of the mummified Ramesses II who died in that year.

It was also known in Greece by 400 BCE and has similarly long trading histories in Rome, China and many other areas.

At times in history the value of pepper was weighed in gold and it was even used as currency, a practice that survives in the term “peppercorn rent”, meaning a nominal payment to satisfy a contract.