BLACK PEPPER
FRENCH, _Poivre_; German, _Pfeffer_; Italian, _Pepe Nero_; Spanish,
_Pimienta_; Portuguese, _Pimenta_; Cyngalese, _Gammaris_; Javanese,
_Maricha_; Persian, _Filfll-Seeah_; Hindoostanse, _Gol-mirch_.
Pepper (Piper) Nigrum, a name employed by the Romans, and derived by
them from the Greek word _peperi_; the Greeks in their turn must have
derived it from the Hindoos. Botanically it is applied to the typical
genus plant of the natural order _piperaceae_. Of all the varieties of
spices used as a condiment, pepper is the only one which grows on a
climbing vine, and there is no kind of spice better known or more
esteemed or more extensively used than pepper. Its consumption is
enormous.
Black pepper is one of the earliest spices known to mankind, being of
extreme antiquity. Choice spices and rare gums were among the precious
treasures of the kings of Egypt more than two thousand years before the
Christian era.
The history of its development from earliest times is well brought out
by the account given in the Pharmacopœia. According to Fluckiger and
Hanbury the spice was well known as early as the fourth century B. C.
Arrian, the author of Periplus of the Frythrean Sea, which was written
about A. D. 618, states that pepper was then imported from Barake, the
shipping place of Nelkunda localities, which have been identified with
points on the Malabar coast. To this spice, Venice, Genoa, and other
commercial cities of central Europe are indebted for much of their
wealth.
The caravan of trading Midianites, who purchased Joseph from his
brethren and sold him into Egypt were bearers of “spices and balm” for
the Egyptian market, and when the sons of Jacob were making preparations
to visit the land the second time to propitiate the lord of the realm,
their father said to them: “Take of the best fruits of the land and
carry down a little balm, and a little honey, spice, and myrrh, nuts and
almonds.”
During the palmy days of Egypt, when they embalmed all of their
distinguished dead, precious gums and fragrant pungent spices were
largely called into requisition. Even the Israelites in their
ritualistic worship held in such high esteem many of these rare gums and
oils that their law forbade their use for any other purpose.
Pepper received mention in the epic poems of the ancient Hindoos.
Theophrastus differentiated between round and long pepper, Diascarides
mentioned long pepper, white pepper and black pepper, and Pliny, the
naturalist, expressed his surprise that it should come into general use
considering its want of flavor, and he states that the price of pepper
in his time at Rome was nine shillings and four pence per pound, English
money. Both he and Diascarides, as well as Hippocrates, write of the
medicinal virtues of spices and of their use in medicine. Pepper has
been so scarce at times and so expensive that one pound was considered a
royal present, and was used like money as a medium of exchange, while at
other times its market value has been very low.
In its frequent mention by Roman writers of the Augustan age we are told
that it was used by them to pay tribute. One of the articles demanded by
Alaric, the daring ruler of the barbaric Visigoths in 410 A. D., of this
conquered and greatly humiliated race was 3,000 pounds of pepper. During
this dark middle age pepper was so costly that rents were paid in pepper
corn, the amount being about one pound at stated times. Even now in
places this custom still continues. It is not, therefore, surprising
that during the first centuries of the Christian era the common black
pepper was prized as highly in the city of Rome as its weight in gold.
Black pepper is found in the East Indian Islands, among which may be
mentioned the Malay Archipelago, Java, Sumatra, Rhio, Johore. It is also
a native of Siam and Cochin China, and it grows wild in the forests of
Malabar and Travancore. It is cultivated in some parts of the United
States and in the West India Islands.
The early history of the pepper trade is similar to that of other
Eastern spices. The Dutch for a long time confined the cultivation of it
to the Island of Java. To accomplish this they forced its cultivation
with so much earnestness that they defeated their own purpose and a more
enlightened system has prevailed for the past thirty years. Since it is
no longer under government monopoly, and entire freedom is allowed in
the raising of this spice, its cultivation has been greatly increased.
The king of Portugal contracted with middlemen in each of his forts on
the coast of Malabar for an annual supply of 30,000 quintals of pepper,
and bound himself to send five ships every year to export that amount.
All risk was held by the middlemen or farmers “who landed it in
Portugal.” As a compensation for this risk, the middlemen obtained the
price of twelve ducats a quintal and had great and strong privileges:
“First, that no man of what estate or condition soever he be, either
Portingall or of any place in India, may deale or trade in pepper, but
they upon paine of death which is very sharply looked into. And although
the pepper were for the king’s own person, yet must the farmers pepper
be first laden to whom the Viceroy and other officers and Captains of
India must give all assistance, helpe and favour with watching same and
all other things whatsoever that shall by said farmers be required for
the safetie and benefite of the said pepper.”
In fact, it was because the price of pepper was so high during the
Middle Ages that the Portuguese were led to seek a sea route to India.
After the passage around the Cape of Good Hope had been discovered,
about 1496, there was a considerable reduction in the price of pepper,
and when it began to be cultivated in the Islands of the Malay
Archipelago, another reduction was made. It, however, remained a
monopoly of the Portuguese crown for many years, even as late as the
eighteenth century. The earliest reference to a trade in pepper in
England is A. D. 978-1016, when it was enacted that traders bringing
their ships to Billingsgate should pay at Christmas and Easter, with
other tributes, ten pounds of pepper.
Great Britain derived a duty from it for centuries, and as late as 1623
this duty was five shillings, or about $1.20 per pound. English grocers
were known as “Peppers.” Even in 1823 the duty was two shillings and six
pence per pound. The pepper alluded to by Pliny at his time in Rome must
have been the product of Malabar, the nearest part of India to Europe,
and must have cost in Malabar about 2d. per pound. It probably went to
Europe by crossing the Indian and Arabian oceans with the easterly
monsoon, sailing up the Red Sea, crossing the desert, and then going
down the Nile, and making its way along the Mediterranean. This voyage
in our time can be made in one month; at that time it probably took
eighteen months. Transit and custom duties must have been paid over and
over again and there must have been plenty of extortion. These facts
will explain how pepper could not be sold in the Roman market under
fifty-six times its prime cost. Immediately previous to the discovery of
the route to India by the Cape of Good Hope we find that the price of
pepper in the market of Europe had fallen to 6s. a pound, or 3s. 4d.
less than in the time of Pliny. What probably contributed to this fall
in price was the superior skill in navigation of the now converted
Mohammedan Arabs, Turks, and Venetians, and the extension of their
commerce in the Eastern Archipelago, which abounded in pepper.
Black pepper was then for many years considered a very choice article
and, like gold, silver, and precious stones, it was possessed only by
persons of wealth, and was for generations found only on royal tables
and those of the rich and noble who aspired to rank with the rulers of
the realm.
The British gave up the chief pepper ground of the world, which was the
grand Island of Sumatra, to the Dutch for the small Dutch colony in
Western Africa, which has involved both nations in little wars and has
cost the Dutch more lives and money than it is worth; but prestige must
also be sustained, and general after general returned with a shattered
reputation from the “_Atyeh_,” as the Dutch called Acheen. When the East
India Company first formed a settlement on the coast of Sumatra, it
directed its attention to produce large growths of pepper. A stipulation
was made with some of the native chiefs, binding them to compel their
subjects each to cultivate a certain number of pepper vines, and the
whole product was to be delivered to the company’s agents at a price far
below the actual cost of cultivation and harvesting. The chiefs for a
long time enforced obedience to this arbitrary measure and their success
in this was supposed to be permanently assured by granting them an
allowance proportionate to the quantity of pepper delivered.
This arbitrary practice was too keenly felt by the natives to be
endured, and, the influence of the chiefs soon declining and the people
becoming negligent in the cultivation, the annual supply fell off. The
chiefs, unable longer to maintain their despotic practice, abandoned to
the agents of the company the task of obliging the people to labor that
others might reap. Now the rights of the people are more respected and
the injustice of the methods formerly used are fully acknowledged; the
cultivation of pepper in Sumatra, as well as elsewhere, is free.
Perhaps the earliest writer to describe the extent of the cultivation of
pepper was Linschoten. He speaks of its coming from Mala or Malabar, and
his friend and commentator of pepper, Paludanus, enters into a long
account of its medicinal virtues. “It warmeth the mawe,” he writes, “and
consumeth the cold slymenes thereof to ease the payne in the mawe which
proceedeth of rawnesse and winde, it is good to eat fyve pepper cornes
everie morning. He that hath a bad or thick sight, let him use pepper
cornes with annis fennel seed and cloves for there by the mystinesse of
the eyes which darken the sight is cleared and driven away.” But in
modern medicine it is very little used, being rarely prescribed except
indirectly as an ingredient of some compound.
Black pepper is the dried fruit of the _piper nigrum_, a perennial
climbing shrub indigenous to the forests of _Travancore_, a native state
in India, province of Madras, and of Malabar, a province of India, from
which it has been introduced into the other countries mentioned.
Two species of piper will be found under drugs, “Cubebs” and a third
falls within the range of the articled drugs “_Kava-Kava_,” and
_Narcotics_; and two others are dealt with under “_Narcotics_.” There
remain then for description as spice, black pepper, white pepper, long
pepper, and Ashantee pepper.
In planting a new garden where no wild pepper vines are to be had, level
land is selected which borders on a river or small stream without much
sloping, but not so low as to be liable to any overflow from the stream,
as the land must be kept well drained. Pepper is a hardy plant and will
grow on almost any soil, but not on old, worn-out plantations or on poor
sandy or clay soil, as more depends on the soil than on the cultivation.
It should not be planted on hillsides because the earth will wash from
the roots in time of rains. The best soil for pepper culture is a
well-drained vegetable loam; swamp lands are very good in a hot climate
with heavy rains.
The vine may be propagated either from the seed or by cuttings. When
berries are selected for seed they are first soaked for three days, when
the outer coat can be removed. The seed is then dried in the shade,
after which it is sown by drills in nursery beds, which are made in the
usual manner in good moist soil in a shady locality. Frequent watering
will be necessary, if it be a dry time, until the plants have four
leaves, when they will be ready for planting.
The land to be planted is to be cleared of underbrush. Sometimes large
trees are burned by setting fire to their trunks. The tree will then
decay and will be attacked by insects and will become a heap of rotten
dust. This dust is washed by the rain around the roots of the vines,
making a good fertilizer.
The land cleared is next well planted and hoed and is lined out 7 × 7
feet, and holes are dug two feet square and fifteen inches deep, which
are filled with good soil or leaf mold if it can be secured. In filling
these holes they should not be heaped, as depressions are better for the
plant, but care should be taken that all that portion of the plant
underground in the nursery should be buried in the garden.
The land is fenced by mud walls made into terraces. The vines need
support, for if they are not supported they will spread over the ground
with the result that there will be much loss of fruit.
When posts are used, as is the case on the Island of Borneo, they
should be twelve feet long and eight inches square, with the lower end
tarred for two feet, to prevent decaying in the ground. The plantation
will then have the appearance of a hop field. But there are many
disadvantages in connection with the post support, as the posts must
be reset at intervals (much oftener than the vines) and the removing
of the post disturbs the aerial roots of the vine, which cling to
them. Even if the vine be trained to its new post, it will take some
time for it to attach sufficiently to receive any support or
nourishment. As the poles furnish little or no shade, a severe drought
will largely ruin the plants. For these reasons the use of posts has
not proved a success. Different countries use different growing trees
for the support, thus securing shade protection as well. Many kinds of
trees are used. One of these is the mango or the bread tree, which
will yield the planter one crop of fruit each year in addition to the
pepper crop; but the bread tree (_artocarpus-incioa_), being of slow
growth, should not be used for a support until it is twelve years old.
The Jack tree (_artocarpus-integrifolia_) is sometimes used in Malabar
as a second choice, but its fruit is diminished in quantity and
quality by the pressure of the pepper, and sometimes the monkeys will
pull them out or the crickets nip off the tops. The _erythrina-Indica_
(_erythrina coroilodendron_), a thorn tree called by the natives
_chingkariang_, is much used in Sumatra for an early support. It grows
quickly and is easily started by simply sticking a large branch in the
ground in the rainy season. It will be capable of supporting the vine
in one year, but it will soon be killed by the growing vine, not
lasting more than twelve years. For this reason the mango or bread
tree is planted beside it and when the _erythrina-Indica_ tree dies
out the first choice mango tree (_manganifera-Indica_) is ready to
take its place and will furnish support for the vine for twenty years.
Moreover, the fruit of the tree will not be affected by the growing
vines. Plantations are set on the tilled land from July to August
about twelve paces apart. In February and March the supporting trees
are planted forty feet apart. They are kept well watered during the
dry season, and when ten feet high are topped and kept trimmed or the
leaves are picked off so as not to shade the plant too much. If the
pepper garden is small, the vines may be planted near the trees
already growing. Plants raised from the seed in nurseries are
transplanted in May or June, being placed in the prepared holes five
feet apart with their root end from the tree and with the growing
perennial vine top directed towards its support. The root should be as
far distant as possible from the support. If the plants are of slow
growth, manure may be applied to the surface of the ground. In China
burnt earth and rotten fish are used. The land must be kept free from
weeds and the plants must be kept well watered on alternate days in
the dry season.
The pepper vines are trained to their support in October and November.
They may begin to bear fruit the first year, but do not yield much until
the third or fourth year. The hoeing, training, and fertilizing are kept
up twice each year in October and November and July and August. The
moist earth should be heaped up and well tramped down about the plant.
When the vines are six feet high they will cling to the trees without
further training. The vines will bear for about fourteen years and even
thirty years sometimes in extra good soil, but when past fourteen years
they will usually decline in vigor and fruitfulness. The vine, after
topping, is from eight to ten feet long, but if left to grow its full
length will be from twenty to thirty feet long and will go to wood and
bear less fruit, and the fruit would be difficult to gather. When
cuttings are to be used for planting, at least three should be placed in
each hole with six inches under ground or four inches above ground, the
portion above ground to be directed towards the support. The plantation
is next covered with leaves, dried grass, or weeds as a protection from
the sun and to keep the earth moist and cool.
The vines grow rapidly if it is wet weather. When they have run up the
support two feet, the ends are nipped off so as to cause lateral
branches to start out. In some places, when the vines are from a year to
eighteen months old and have grown five feet up the support, they are
carefully detached and the ends, having been coiled up in a spiral form,
are buried in a hole dug in the ground close to its roots, except a
small surface of the stem. This process is called letting down. It
insures a large crop, producing seven or more vines to one supporting
tree. Plants raised from cuttings will only bear from seven to eight
years, but the quantity and quality of the pepper is far superior to
that raised from the seed.
The planting of the cuttings in baskets is often carried on in the
following manner: The cuttings, which are about eighteen inches long,
are put half a dozen in a basket; at higher altitudes more are used,
sometimes as many as ten or twelve. The basket is then filled with earth
and is buried at the foot of the supporting tree, care being taken that
they do not touch. In October and November the ground around the baskets
is dug up and the vines are manured with cow dung and leaves. The
baskets are said to be a great protection to the young vines and they
insure much better results. The end of the vine makes the best cutting,
as it is a growing terminal bud. Vines growing wild, such as are
indigenous to the forests of Malabar and Travancore, are left planted
with the forest trees for their support. The surplus shade and
underbrush are cut out and the ground is weeded, old vines being
replaced by young ones. The product raised in this way is about as good
as the cultivated.
A pepper garden is generally planted with plenty of room for roads, so
as to secure easy access to all parts of it and with the least possible
grade, which should not be more than one foot in twenty. The garden
contains anywhere from five to fifteen acres and is divided into plots
by hedges of shrubs, each plot containing from five hundred to one
thousand plants. The plants are pruned or thinned by hand as they grow
bushy at the top, when the flexible stems generally entwine at the top
of their support and then bend downward, having their extremities as
well as their branches loaded with fruit. It matters not how many stalks
grow from the same root until the vine begins to bear fruit, but when
fruit bearing begins only one or two stems should be left, as more would
weaken the root and it would not, for that reason, bear as abundantly.
All suckers and side shoots must be carefully removed. Trenches are cut
to the neighbor props where the vines have failed, and through these
trenches superfluous shoots are conducted, where they soon ascend around
the adjacent tree. By this means the plantation is of a uniform growth,
and, since the ground is kept well weeded and is elevated, and since
there is an open border of twelve feet wide around each garden, there is
given to the plantation an admirable symmetry and neatness of
appearance.
[Illustration: HARVESTING OF BLACK PEPPER]
[Illustration: COAST NEAR MANGALORE]
The pepper vine or climbing shrub is mentioned by Sir John Mandeville in
his travels of 1322 to 1356 as follows: “The pepper growethe in manere
as doth a wylde vine that is planted fast by the trees of the woodee for
to susteynen it by, as doth the vyne and fruyt thereof hangethe in
manere as Reysinges; and the tree is so thikke charged that it semethe
that it wolde breke, and when it is ripe it is all grene as it were ivy
berryes; and then men kytten them as men doe the vynes and then they
putten it upon an owven and there it waxeth blak and crisp.”
This simple description will in some respects answer our purpose at the
present time. The leaf of the pepper vine is entire, simple, alternate,
without stipules, broad, and fleshy, or oval or heart-shaped. The leaves
are arranged in clusters of five to seven in number, opposite the flower
stalk, and the flowers, which are glossy-white, are very insignificant
in appearance upon a long slender pendulous spadix. They are for the
most part uni-sexual, either manœcious or diœcious; that is, the
staminate (male flower) and pistillate (female) flowers are separate
either upon different branches of the same plant (manœcious) or upon
different plants (diœcious). The leaves are four to six inches long, and
they partake strongly of the aromatic and peculiar smell and pungent
taste of the berry. The small fruit grows loosely on the pendulous fruit
stalks or spikes. A single vine will bear from twenty to thirty fruit
spikes and each spike contains twenty to forty berries. If they were
allowed to ripen, the berries would lose some of their pungency and
would gradually fall off.
The pepper vine produces two crops annually, the first in December and
January, at the time of the first monsoon. The flowers of the second
crop appear in March and April, at the time of the little monsoon, and
the crop is gathered in July and August. The second crop is inferior
both in quality and quantity, probably on account of lack of moisture.
The pepper berry is a small, round, sessile, fleshy fruit, which at
first appears green, next red, and finally yellow when fully ripe. When
one or two berries at the base of the spike begin to turn red the entire
spike is pinched off.
In gathering the fruit, the natives make use of a small triangular
ladder made of bamboo, with which they go around the tree and reach all
the fruit as they go. The fruit is put in small baskets slung over the
shoulder (see illustrations) of the gatherer. It is then taken by those
who work on the ground to a smooth, level spot of clean, hard ground and
spread on mats or platforms to dry (mat drying is said to give heavier
returns), care being taken to carry it in at night so as to escape the
dews. After three days, as the drying proceeds, the berries are removed
by rubbing with the hands and are picked clean or winnowed in large
round sieves. In some eastern localities mills operated by hand
facilitate the work. After the berries have become dry they will shrivel
and turn black or chocolate. Those gathered too soon will after being
dried become dust.
The berries after drying are spherical and about one-fifth of an inch in
diameter and are wrinkled on the surface, indistinctly pointed below by
the remains of a very short pedical and crowned by three or four lobed
stigmas. The thin pericarp tightly encloses a single seed, the embryo of
which, on account of the premature gathering is not fully developed and
is replaced by the cavity below the apex. The seed itself contains
within the thin red-brown testa a shining albumen of angular, radically
arranged, large-celled parenchyme, gray and horny without and mealy
within.
The transverse section of a grain of pepper exhibits a soft, yellowish
epidermis covering; the outer pericarp is formed of a closely packed
yellow layer of large and most radically arranged thick-walled cells,
most of which are colorless and loaded with starch; others contain a
soft, yellowish, amorphous mass, each containing in its minute cavity a
quantity of dark-brown resin, while the middle layer of the pericarp
consists of starch and oil, the shrinkage of which causes the deep
wrinkles on the surface of the berry. The next inner layer of the
pericarp exhibits its circumference tangentially arranged soft
parenchyme, the cells of which possess either spiral striation or spiral
fibers, but towards the interior lose parenchyme free from starch and
containing very large oil cells. The testa is formed in the first place
of a row of small yellowish thick-walled cells, next to which follows
the true testa as a dense, dark-brown layer of lignified cells, the
individual outlines of which are indistinguishable. If thin slices are
kept under glycerine for some time these masses are slowly transformed
into needle-shaped crystals of piperine. The angular cells of the
interior of the seed are, of course, the more prominent and, when once
seen, their characteristic form and contents are easily recognized
again. The structure of the outer coats is made out with more
difficulty, and before attempting to do so on ground pepper it is best
to soften some whole black and white pepper corns in glycerine and cut
sections from various parts of the exterior of the berry.
White pepper, since it is allowed to ripen fully, has the most
distinctness, and, since it lacks the wrinkles, it will not be found
difficult to pick out three layers of different cells from a section
from it mounted in glycerine, composing the outer coat of the corn,
besides angular large cells of the interior which are filled with starch
and piperine, the latter being yellow in color. The first of these
layers, the outer one, is made of colorless, large, loosely arranged
cells with some fibers toward the exterior more compact than those
toward the interior of the layer and carrying globules of oil. This
layer makes up the principal part of the husk of the white pepper. The
second layer is a part of what is generally called the testa and
consists of small yellow cells, thick walled and closely oppressed. Next
comes the third layer and second portion of the testa, which consists of
lignified brown cells, which in their transverse appearance resemble
some of the cells of mustard hulls. The individuality of these cells is
not made out easily, owing to the thickness of the walls. After the
observer has become thoroughly familiar with these appearances of the
white pepper he should examine ground pepper, which will be found to
differ in the way in which these coats are to be presented; they can be
recognized, however, and must be studied until thoroughly understood.
The black pepper is not as simple in its arrangement as the white, the
maturity of the white giving it distinctness, while the shrunken
character of the black berry makes the recognition of its various
tissues difficult. In a section from the exterior of a softened black
pepper, the interior coats, after what has been learned of the white,
will be quickly recognized, but they are not plainly developed. The
coats of the outer pericarp, which in the white pepper were wanting,
will be found to be darker colored, shrunken and confused, so that it
requires much study to discover the forms of the cells, which may be
more easily found in the powdered black pepper; there the structure
already recognized in the ground white pepper will be seen and in
addition dark-brown particles, portions of the outer coats. Careful
examinations of different particles will reveal some which consist of
the elongated, vertical exterior cells containing resin, while others
are the shrunken parenchyme cells of the second layer, whose structure
is indistinct.
The colored portion of a ground black pepper divides itself into two
classes, the dark particles which have just been mentioned and the deep
reddish ones which are made up of the testa of the seed and its adherent
parenchyme. The two will be readily recognized and distinguished from
adulterants by investigation.
There are in all about forty different species of pepper plant,
consisting of herbs, shrubs, and trees. They are generally named from
the city or country of export. The differences in appearance of the
product coming from various sources are sufficiently marked to be
readily noticed when samples of each are at hand side by side, but
otherwise it is almost impossible to distinguish between some of them.
The goodness of the pepper depends more on the quality of the soil than
on the cultivation, although cultivation will increase the yield. The
fine Tellicherry pepper together with the Alleppy are considered the
best varieties. Tellicherry is named from the city of Tellicherry of
British India, province of Maladar, district of Madras. Alleppy is named
from the city of Alleppy, which is the capital of the native state
Travancore in the district of Madras. These are closely followed by the
Malabar pepper from the district of Malabar, India. These varieties are
sun-dried. Next comes the fine Penang pepper, named from the city of
Penang, meaning “_betalnut_” (see illustration) in the Straits
Settlement. This is followed by the Singapore, named from the city of
Singapore, and meaning City of the Lion (see illustration), which is
also in the Straits Settlement, and is the largest export city of spice
in the world, being the center of export for spices grown in the Malay
Peninsula as well as in Java and Sumatra and of that rich state known as
Johore, in the southern extremity of the Malay Peninsula.
[Illustration: ACHEEN]
[Illustration: TELLICHERRY COAST FROM OLD FORT, LOOKING NORTH]
Singapore pepper, by reason of its dark color and fairly uniform
quality, is a good-looking pepper, and for that reason it is esteemed,
but for grinding purposes it has not been heretofore so highly regarded,
because of its smoky odor, as it is dried over smoke. The pepper
plantation and the gambier plantation of Johore are usually under one
management, and in boiling down the gambier to make the vegetable
extracts there are suspended over the kettle mats on which are placed
quantities of the Singapore pepper.
The smoke from the furnace dries and at the same time blackens the
pepper and gives it the unmistakable smoky smell which is characteristic
of Singapore pepper. This smoky odor is retained to a considerable
degree after the pepper is ground, and it is one of the tests by which
pepper merchants determine whether a given sample is Singapore or not.
The Singapore pepper from Borneo is divided into, first, the Mullacca,
which is the best and heaviest; second, the Caytongee; and third, the
poorest sort, Negara, which is most abundant, and which is small and
usually falls to dust. Mangalore pepper, named from the city of
Mangalore (Fig. 3), is the largest pepper corn grown. It is nearly twice
the size of ordinary pepper, is of a deep black color, very clean, and
of uniform size. When ground it yields a powder of a characteristic
greenish appearance. Lampong pepper takes its name from a district
bordering on the east end of the Island of Sumatra near the Straits of
Sunda where it grows. There is also a city in the district by the name,
Lampong (meaning bobbing in water), where all the men and women meet at
a central market house to transact their business matters. The Lampong
pepper corns are less uniform in size than those of the other varieties
before mentioned, and are also of a lighter color, and the surface
contains much dirt. Acheen, Sumatra, or West Coast, are names applied to
the pepper found on the great wild island of Sumatra, visited by Marco
Polo in 1291. The island is divided into semi-independent states, each
being ruled by its own prince or chief, who may be called Sultan, Rajah,
or Datto. The interior of Sumatra is inhabited by the lion and the
tiger, and by bands of savage Malays mixed with Dyaks of Borneo and
Hindoos, some of whom are very savage. Among these are the head-hunters,
or cannibals, who impose as a penalty for certain crimes that the guilty
one is to be cut to pieces and eaten, and sometimes is to be eaten
alive. This class of people are found in the south of Achin.
Acheen pepper (Fig. 2) takes its name from the district by that name, or
from the city of Acheen (native dialect, Atkeh) (see illustration) and
the district of Acheen, which exported in the year 1904, 60,000 piculs
(136 lbs. each); Telak Betang (South Sumatra) exported 50,000 piculs
(136 lbs. each); Padang, Sumatra (meaning an open plain), produces much
pepper of good quality, and the Bataks, of North Sumatra, have long been
devoted to its cultivation. The designation East and West Coast, as
formerly used, have been (as have also the three names it was known by
on the island, “Iada-Iawor” or “Lampoon,” “Iada Manna,” and “Iada
Jambee”) lost track of, and the pepper is now designated according to
its specific gravity as A, B, C, or D grade.
A grade weighs at least 4 lbs., 13 oz. to the imperial gallon (481 grams
per liter).
B grade weighs at least 4 lbs., 5 oz. to the imperial gallon (431 grams
per liter).
C grade weighs at least 3 lbs., 13 oz. to the imperial gallon (381 grams
per liter).
D grade weighs at least 3 lbs., 5 oz. to the imperial gallon (586 grams
per liter).
There has probably not been any of the A grade of Acheen black pepper in
this country for several years, for the reason that it is this grade of
pepper that is preferred by the manufacturers of Penang white pepper;
and since it is used up in that way it does not reach our market except
in the form of white pepper, Fig. 5. The best way to test the quality of
the whole pepper is by weight, the heavier being the best. It takes
6,984 Singapore pepper corns (Fig. 4) to weigh one pound, while the
finer grades of Tellicherry or Malabar (Fig. 1) require but 6,400.
[Illustration: CENTRAL MARKET LOMPONG (Bobbing in Water) TELAH BENTONG]
[Illustration: A HOME IN ALLEPPY]
Pepper is sometimes graded by putting it in water, when the heavy sinks
and the light swims; the water also removes the dirt that might adhere
to it. Shot pepper is the heavier black pepper put through a soaking and
hardening process. Afterwards it is oiled to give it a better
appearance, but as the water is injurious to the berry it is now
generally separated in a column of air. The better appearance thus given
to the shot pepper makes it more in demand and gives it a higher market
value.
From what has been said, we can readily understand that the quality of
pepper differs in the different localities. Pepper will hold its
strength longer than any other spice. It has been found by mixing
Malabar for weight, Penang for strength, and Sumatra for color, we get
the most desirable powdered article. Malabar pepper has about twice the
strength of Singapore, which has twice the strength of Sumatra. The
Atjeh, Atchin or Acheen, pepper from the northeastern part of Sumatra,
and that from the province of Batak in the more central eastern part of
Sumatra Island, as received in this country, contain much earthy matter,
and the East Archipelago pepper culture, including the islands of Johore
and Rhio, is so widely spread as to give us large and various qualities.
The city of Penang, in the Straits Settlement, exported in the year
1904, 53,613 bags of black pepper and 22,415 bags of white pepper, being
about half of the entire supply, and the Island of Ceylon exported in
1904, 2,746 cwt. of pepper valued at $379.83. Saigon, China, has also
many acres under cultivation. Of course, when the price of pepper is
high, there is more profit for the grower, and the laborer is given more
employment, since the acreage is increased. Advances of money are made
to the Chinaman by the merchants, who take security on the growing
pepper at a rate fixed much below its actual value. The Chinaman on this
advance money erects a small building required as a home, and purchases
his farming implements and has two dollars monthly for food and for
opium, and at the end of the third year the plantation is equally
divided between the contracting parties. One man can take care of about
3,000 plants after they come into bearing. Ashantee pepper or West
African (and as it is sometimes called, African Cubebs) is the fruit of
the piper, (Cubeb) “Clusii,” and is principally from Niam-Niam, a
district in Guinea bordering on the Gulf of Guinea in Africa, and is
locally used as a substitute for black pepper, but has a hollow berry,
much smaller and less wrinkled. In the southwest of India, where pepper
grows wild, it is found in rich, moist soil, usually in narrow valleys.
It propagates itself by running along on the ground and throwing off
shoots every few feet. The natives, in caring for it, merely tie the
ends of the vines to trees at distances at least six feet apart, and
especially to those having a rough bark, as the vine readily clings to
the rough surface of the tree. In India the berries of (Embelia)
(Samara) Ribes are often mixed with pepper.
There is also a fruit called _Melegueta_ pepper, known also as “Guinea
Grains,” Grains of Paradise, or Alligator pepper, which is the seed of
_Amomum Mele Gueta_, a plant of the ginger family, which contains seeds
which are exceedingly pungent and are used as a spice through Central
and Northern Africa. The cultivation of the pepper plant in the Western
Hemisphere has been attended with fair success where it has been
perseveringly pursued, but there is little probability that it can
successfully compete even in the West India islands with that of those
countries where the plant is indigenous. Jamaica pepper, which is a
native of the Island of Jamaica, belongs more to the fruit of pimenta,
an account of which is given under a separate chapter. The yield of
pepper varies in different localities and may be from one and one-half
to eight or ten pounds to a single vine. The third year the yield is one
catty; fourth year, one and one-half catty; the fifth year, three and
one-half catties, a catty being one and one-third pounds. Four thousand
pounds is a good average to one acre. Ten pounds of green berries make
only four to five pounds when dried and bagged for the market.
[Illustration: SINGAPORE (City of the Lion)]
[Illustration: VIEW IN HARBOR OF PENANG FROM STEAMER LOOKING NORTHWEST
Copyright by Underwood and Underwood, N. Y.]
It is hard to estimate the amount of black pepper used each year, but it
is very great. The United States consumes more spices pro rata than any
other country. This fact is well known by exporters after long
experience, and now many spices are shipped direct to the United States
ports instead of by the way of London.
The chief use of pepper is that of a spice added principally to meats,
but also to other food substances. Pepper is sometimes used for
medicinal purposes, as it stimulates the stomach on account of the
piperine it contains, and thus aids in digestion. In removing ringworms
it has few equals. The native doctors of India consider it a stimulant,
and they prescribe an infusion of the toasted berries in cases of
cholera morbus; it will check violent vomiting in that disease when many
other remedies fail. They also prepare a liniment from pepper which they
think has sovereign virtue in chronic rheumatism. In Europe it is
sometimes used as a stimulant in gout and palsy, and the watery infusion
has proved a useful gargle in relaxation of the uvula. The dose of black
pepper should be about six grains.
The chief enemies of the pepper vine are white ants, the black bug and
white bug, the borer, male crickets, and the Cinchana caterpillar. A
strong solution of tuba root is sufficient to keep away white ants, and
tuba root mixed with juice of common tobacco will prevent the black and
white bug work, and in mild cases ashes or sulphur and lime applied
early in the morning will be found sufficient. The borer begins by
attacking the joints of the branches and its presence is known by the
light yellowish color of the bark. There is no known preventive for the
borer, except to catch it before it has gone too far. It always works
around the joints, and when it has completed the circle, it commences to
bore down the center of the branch, and sometimes, but very seldom, the
stem. The male cricket goes for the roots, but does the least damage; if
it has gone too far to be dug out, the best way is to plug up its hole
as far as possible with clay.
The green Cinchana caterpillar attacks the leaves only, but may destroy
many of them; the only plan to make way with it is to send a coolie
around to collect and destroy the insects.
Whole pepper is seldom or never adulterated, although much is uncleaned.
Old, water-soaked stock is at times found on the market. Several years
ago two thousand bags were thrown into the Thames River from a wharf
which was on fire, and was later offered for sale at auction. The
powdered article, however, is adulterated more than any other condiment
used as a table spice. The adulteration is made by almost any cheap,
foreign article attainable and in a most ridiculous and not only
unlawful but inhuman way. The probable reasons why pepper is selected
for this more extensive abuse are found in the fact that adulteration is
more easily covered up and in the further fact that, owing to the large
amount of pepper used, the gain is much greater.
The quality of a ground pepper can be told by an expert from its weight
and color, and on examination with a lens of low magnifying power. The
particles are not coarsely ground, and it is not difficult to pick out
pieces of husk, yellow corn, and rice; if necessary, a more careful
investigation under a microscope of higher power will serve for
confirmation. Black pepper is much more liable to be adulterated than
the white, although it is perfectly easy to dilute the latter with
broken rice or cracker dust, or with long pepper. There is a disposition
many times on the part of those who can afford it to have the best that
can be made, in appearance at least, and it is thought by some that the
whiter the color of the pepper the purer the quality. This is a great
mistake. The removing of the outer covering of the black in order to
make white pepper removes the most pungent part of the fruit. This work
is sometimes carried so far that, while the fruit, when ground, is
nearly as white as starch, there is little left but starch. It is
questioned whether this practice is not as much an adulteration as the
skimming of milk, as it takes away the most valuable part of the fruit.
Long pepper is also used to adulterate pepper, but the taste and smell
of the long pepper cannot be disguised, and its starch is nearly double
the size of that of ordinary black pepper. Not only are the pepper
shells used to adulterate ground pepper, but also other by-products,
such as middlings, wheat, corn, ground olive stones, cocoanut shells,
almond shells, mustard hulls, long pepper, Cayenne pepper, sago, and
linseed.
These are sold to the spice grinders under the name of “P. D.” pepper.
Pepper adulterants and pepper mixtures,—P. D., pepper dust; H. P. D.,
hot pepper dust; W. P. D., white pepper dust—consist of such products as
the grinder has at hand or can obtain at the lowest price, the mixer
requiring only that the colors shall be such as are suitable for his
trade. In London, the olive stones are much used, put up in colors of
both black and white. Pepper mixtures are sold under the name of
“Poivrette or Pepperette.” Their natural color is pale buff, much
resembling the middle layer of the pepper berry when ground, and they
cannot be distinguished from the pepper by the eye, even with the use of
a hand lens, when mixed with a powdered pepper, but with the aid of the
microscope with one-sixth or one-eighth objective, it is seen that they
consist of pale, dense, lignous cells, being entire and marked with
linear air spaces; some are torn and indistinct. Other substances
examined showed finely ground clay and brick dust. The presence of
pepper husks and charcoal is generally known by the immensely increased
proportion of black particles in the field, as appears in Fig. 43,
opposite page 25, Chap. III.
The true pepper powder, and one in which rice starch is present, is
given in Fig. 21 and in Fig. 42, which also gives us an idea of the size
of the pepper starch, which is very small as compared with any other
kind of starch. Much authority might be quoted on the adulterations of
pepper, but enough has been written to give the reader an idea of its
vastness. I will next endeavor to give the method of examining peppers
microscopically. First, the sieve examination of those particles left
upon a forty to sixty-mesh sieve is of value. This examination will
frequently reveal the nature of the adulterant or the too large portion
of pepper husk.
Next, by the aid of a good dissecting microscope, fifteen to thirty
power, the frequency of the occurrence of the coarse particles, after a
little experience, will not be difficult to sort out, and the presence
of sand or a notable excess of P. D. may be detected and estimated.
Backgrounds of white and black with reflected light and afterwards
transmitted light may be used in the manner so conveniently afforded by
Zeiss’s stand made for this purpose. A portion of the powdered pepper or
the separated coarse particles should also be treated with a
chloral-hydrate solution for twenty-four hours, to render it more
transparent for examination with higher powers, and in the meantime a
part of the coarse particles collected from the sieve may be examined
under a one and one-half inch objective and then crushed and
re-examined, using both plain and polarized light. In this way husky
matter may be distinguished and foreign starches rejected. Polarized
light is then the means of bringing out more plainly the starches, the
proportion of which iodine will reveal. Due allowance should be made for
the smaller granules of pepper starch and all optically active tissue,
such as the fibers and sclerenchyma or stone cells, which are found in
olive stones and cocoanut shells. The chloral-hydrate preparation should
now be examined, much of which disappears, and the starch is found much
swollen. The structure of the pepper itself has already been explained
and is supposed to be so well understood that it cannot be confused with
the foreign matter, as the husky matter present is rendered so much
clearer that its identification and differentiation are much easier.
Experience with half a dozen samples of cheap, in comparison with a
pure, pepper will soon teach one the best means of making out what has
been briefly described.
It has been found most valuable to digest about a gram of pepper with
nitric acid, specific gravity 1.1, and chlorate of potash for several
hours, or until the color is bleached, when it is then possible to
distinguish the denser cellular structure more easily than in any other
way. This is particularly true of the stone cells, which make up the
larger part of the cocoanut shells and ground olive stones, especially
when polarized light is used. Care should be taken not to confuse the
stone cells of the pepper husk with those of olive stones or other
adulterants. Charcoal at the same time remains unbleached. The analyst
will find many variations in the samples met with and should always be
on guard for something new.
Chemical composition of black pepper.—The analysis of the pure ground
pepper shows the amount of water to be between 8 and 10 per cent., but,
of course, it varies with surrounding conditions. The ash in black
peppers does not exceed from 4-10 to 7-10 per cent., and in white, 4-10
per cent.; it is fair to believe that anything above 5 per cent. for
black and 2 per cent. for white is suspicious. The volatile oil, to
which pepper owes its flavor, varies in black pepper from 1.69 to .70,
and in white 1.26 to .57 are found, but this determination is not of
great value as a means of detecting adulterations.
Piperine, which is a neutral crystalline substance, and resin, to which
the pepper owes its pungency, of which it yields about two per cent. in
its composition, are similar to oil of turpentine as well in specific
gravity as in the boiling point. These substances furnish a most
valuable check on the purity of both white and black pepper. Pepper
contains from 7.90 to 7.24 per cent. of these substances, showing a
great constancy in amount, and on addition of adulterants, this is
plainly affected, which seems better than a determination of pure
piperine, which is difficult and causes much loss. It has also proved
impossible to make determinations of piperine by the combustion, or K.
Jeldahl, methods by application of Stutzer’s copper-hydrate process, the
percentage of nitrogen being so small, 4.912 in piperine, as to make the
error very large when converting the former to the latter, the necessary
factor being 20.36.
The determination of starch or its equivalent in reducing sugars has
been looked into with care, and a preliminary extraction with alcohol
and water is necessary to obtain results which are fairly constant,
which determination shows black pepper to contain from 34 to 38 per
cent. of starch, or 42 to 47 per cent. of substances of reducing sugar
equivalent, calculated on dry ash free substance. White pepper contains
in the same way from 40 to 43 per cent. starch and gives from 50 to 55
per cent. of reducing sugar equivalent on dry ash free substance.
The crude fiber in black pepper does not vary far from 10 per cent., but
in the white pepper is much reduced, depending to a certain extent on
the perfection of the decortication. Four to 8 per cent. are probably
fair limits, and this determination is quite necessary in revealing the
presence of foreign woody or fibrous matter.
Albuminoids do not vary widely, 10 per cent. being the average, with
extremes of 7.69 and 11.50. The addition of nitrogenous seeds, of
course, increases the amount, and of fibrous or woody matter diminishes
it. We have the following result as a standard:
Water, 8.0 to 11.0
Ash, 2.75 to 5.0
Volatile Oil, .50 to 1.75
Pepperine and Resin, 7.0 to 8.0
Starch, 32.0 to 38.0
Crude Fiber, 8.0 to 11.0
Albuminoids, 7.0 to 12.0
------------------------------------------------------------------------