_Pod Pepper_, _Red Pepper_, _Guinea
Pepper_, _Chillies_, _Capsicum_; F.
_Piment ou Corail des Jardins_, _Poivre
d’Inde ou de Guinée_; G. _Spanischer
Pfeffer_.
=Botanical Origin=—The plants, the fruits of which are known as
_Pod Pepper_, have for a long period been cultivated in tropical
countries, and are now found in such numerous varieties that an exact
determination of the original species is a point of great difficulty.
Of several species having pungent fruits, the two following are those
which supply the spice found in British commerce:—
1. _Capsicum fastigiatum_ Blume,[1659] a small ramous shrub, with
4-sided, fastigiate, diverging branches; fruit-bearing peduncles
sub-geminate, slender, erect; fruit very small, subcylindrical, oblong,
straight, with calyx obconical and truncate. It occurs apparently wild
in Southern India, and is extensively cultivated in Tropical Africa and
America.
Roxburgh, who describes this plant under the name _C. minimum_, terms
it _East Indian Bird Chilly_ or _Cayenne Pepper Capsicum_. Wight says
that it is consumed by the natives of India, but that it is not the
sort preferred. It is this species that the authors of the British
Pharmacopœia have cited as the source of the _Fructus Capsici_ to be
used in medicine, and it certainly furnishes the greater part of the
Pod Pepper now found in the London market.
2. _C. annuum_ L., an herbaceous (sometimes shrubby?) plant, with fruit
extremely variable in size, form, and colour, in some varieties erect,
in others pendulous. According to Naudin, in whose opinion we concur,
_C. longum_ DC.[1660] and _C. grossum_ Willd. are not specifically
distinct from this plant. It furnishes the larger kinds of Pod Pepper
and, as we believe, much of the Cayenne Pepper which is imported in the
state of powder.
=History=—All species of _Capsicum_ appear to be of American origin;
no ancient Sanskrit or Chinese name for the genus is known, and the
Latin and Greek names that have been referred to it are extremely
doubtful.[1661]
The earliest reference to the fruit as a condiment that we have met
with, occurs in a letter written in 1494 to the Chapter of Seville by
Chanca, physician to the fleet of Columbus in his second voyage to the
West Indies. The writer in noticing the productions of Hispaniola,
remarks that the natives live on a root called _Age_, which they season
with a spice they term _Agi_, also eaten with fish and meat.[1662] The
first of these words signifies _yam_, the second is the designation
of Red Pepper, and still the common name for it in Spanish. Capsicum
and its uses are more particularly described by Fernandez, who reached
Tropical America from Spain in A.D. 1514.[1663]
[1659] Wight, _Icones Plant. Indiæ Orient._ iv. (1850) tab. 1617;
_Capsicum minimum_ Roxb. _Flor. Ind._ i. (1832) 574. Faire has
ascertained that this is the _Capsicum frutescens_ of the _Species
Plantarum_ of Linnæus, but not that of the _Hortus Cliffortianus_ of
the same botanist, to which latter the name _C. frutescens_ is usually
applied.
[1660] The chief distinction between _C. annuum_ and _C. longum_ is
that the former has an _erect_, the latter a _pendulous_ fruit.
[1661] Dunal in De Cand. _Prodromus_, xiii. i. 412.
[1662] _Letters of Christopher Columbus_, translated by Major (Hakluyt
Society), 1870. 68.
[1663] _Historia de las Indias_, Madrid, i. (1851) 275.
In the _Historia Stirpium_ of Leonhard Fuchs, published at Basle
in 1542, fol. 733, may be found the first and excellent figures of
_Capsicum longum_ DC. under the name of _Siliquastrum_ or _Calicut
Pepper_; the author states that the plant has been introduced into
Germany from India a few years previously. From this might be inferred
an Indian origin; but on the other hand, Clusius asserts that the
plant was brought from Pernambuco by the Portuguese, whose commercial
intercourse with India would easily explain it being carried thither at
an early period. He further states, that the American capsicum had been
generally introduced into the gardens at Castille, and that it was used
all the year round, green or dried, as a condiment and as pepper. He
also saw it cultivated in abundance at Brünn in Moravia in 1585.[1664]
[1664] Caroli Clusii _Curæ posteriores_, Antverp., 1611. 95.
_Capsicum longum_ DC. was grown in England by Gerarde (1597 _et
antea_), who speaks of the pods as well known, and sold “in the shops
at Billingsgate by the name of Ginnie Pepper.”
=Description=—As already indicated, the Pod Pepper of commerce is of
two kinds, namely:—
1. Fruits of _Capsicum fastigiatum_—These are ½ to ¾ of an inch
in length, by about ²/₁₀ of an inch in diameter, of an elongated,
subconical form, tapering to a blunt point, and slightly contracted
towards the base. The calyx, which is not always present, is
cup-shaped, 5-toothed, 5-sided, supported on a slender, straight
pedicel, ¾ to 1 inch long. The fruits, which are somewhat compressed
and shrivelled by drying, and also brittle when old, have a leathery,
smooth, shining translucent, thin, dry pericarp, of a dull orange-red,
enclosing about 18 seeds, attached in two cells to a thin central
partition. The seeds have the form of roundish or ovate discs, about
⅛ of an inch in diameter, somewhat thickened at the edges; the embryo
is curved, almost into a ring. The taste of the pericarp, and likewise
of the seeds, is extremely pungent and fiery. The dried fruit has an
odour by no means feeble, which we cannot compare to that of any other
substance.
2. Fruits of _Capsicum annuum_ of the commonest variety resemble those
of _C. fastigiatum_, except that they are of longer size, being from 2
to 3 or more inches in length, often rather more tapering towards the
extremity. The seeds scarcely surpass in size those of _C. fastigiatum_.
=Microscopic Structure=—The pericarp consists of two layers, the outer
being composed of yellow thick-walled cells. The inner layer is twice
as broad and exhibits a soft shrunken parenchyme, traversed by thin
fibro-vascular bundles. The cells of the outer layer especially are
the seat of the fine granular colouring matter. If it is removed by
an alcoholic solution of potash, a cell-nucleus and drops of fat oil
make their appearance. The structural details of this fruit afford
interesting subjects for microscopical investigation.
=Chemical Composition=—Bucholz in 1816, and about the same time
Braconnot, traced the acridity of capsicum to a substance called
_Capsicin_. It is obtained by treating the alcoholic extract of ether,
and is a thick yellowish-red liquid, but slightly soluble in water.
When gently heated, it becomes very fluid, and at a higher temperature
is dissipated in fumes which are extremely irritating to respiration.
It is evidently a mixed substance, consisting of resinous and fatty
matters.
Felletár in 1869 exhausted capsicum fruits with dilute sulphuric acid,
and distilled the decoction with potash. The distillate, which was
strongly alkaline and smelt like conine, was saturated with sulphuric
acid, evaporated to dryness, and exhausted with absolute alcohol. The
solution, after evaporation of the alcohol, was treated with potash,
and yielded by distillation a volatile alkaloid having the odour of
conine.
From experiments made by one of us (F.) we can fully confirm the
observations of Felletár. We have obtained the volatile base in
question, and find it to have the smell of conine. It occurs both in
the pericarp and in the seeds, but in so small proportion that we
were unsuccessful in isolating it in sufficient quantity to allow of
accurate examination.
Dragendorff states (1871) that petroleum ether is the best solvent for
the alkaloid of capsicum; he obtained crystals of its hydrochlorate,
the aqueous solution of which was precipitated by most of the usual
tests, but not by tannic acid.
The colouring matter of capsicum fruits is sparingly soluble in
alcohol, but readily in chloroform. After evaporation, an intensely red
soft mass is obtained, which is not much altered by potash; it turns
first blue, then black with concentrated sulphuric acid, like many
other yellow colouring substances. By alcohol chiefly _palmitic_ acid
is extracted from the fruit, as shown by Thresh in 1877.
The fruits of _Capsicum fastigiatum_ have a somewhat strong odour; on
distilling consecutively two quantities, each of 50 lb., we obtained
a scanty amount of flocculent fatty matter, which possesses an odour
suggestive of parsley. Both this matter, as well as the distilled
water, were neutral to litmus paper, and the water tasteless. We
separated the latter, and exposed the remaining greasy mass to a
temperature of about 50° C., when it for the most part melted. The
clear liquid on cooling solidified, and now consisted of tufted
crystals, which we further purified by recrystallization from alcohol.
Thus about 2 centigrammes were obtained of a neutral white stearoptene,
having a decidedly aromatic, not very persistent taste, by _no
means acrid_, but rather like that of the essential oil of parsley.
The crystals melted at 38° C. On keeping them for some days at the
temperature of the water-bath, covered with a watch-glass, some drops
of essential oil were volatilized, which had the same taste and did
not solidify; the crystals were consequently accompanied by a liquid
oil. When kept for some days more in that condition, the crystals
themselves began to be volatilized, and the part remaining behind
acquired a brownish hue. This no doubt points out another impurity,
as we ascertained by the following experiment. With boiling solution
of potash, the stearoptene produces a kind of soap, which on cooling
yields a transparent jelly. If this is dissolved and diluted, it
becomes turbid by addition of an acid. This probably depends upon the
presence of a little fatty matter, a suggestion which is confirmed by
the somewhat offensive smell given off by our stearoptene if it is
heated in a glass tube.
Buchheim’s “Capsicol”[1665] is in our opinion a doubtful substance.
Thresh (1876-1877) succeeded in isolating a well defined, highly active
principle, the _Capsaicin_, from the extract which he obtained by
exhausting Cayenne pepper with petroleum. From the red liquor dilute
caustic lye removes capsaicin, which is to be precipitated in minute
crystals by passing carbonic acid through the alkaline solution. They
may be purified by recrystallizing them from either alcohol, ether,
benzine, glacial acetic acid, or hot bisulphide of carbon; in petroleum
capsaicin is but very sparingly soluble, yet dissolves abundantly on
addition of fatty oil. The latter being present in the pericarp is the
cause why capsaicin can be extracted by the above process.
The crystals of capsaicin are colourless and answer to the formula
C₉H₁₄O₂; they melt at 59° C. and begin to volatilize at 115° C.,
but decomposition can only be avoided by great care. The vapours of
capsaicin are of the most _dreadful acridity_, and even the ordinary
manipulation of that substance requires much precaution. Capsaicin is
not a glucoside; it is a powerful rubefacient, and taken internally
produces very violent burning in the stomach.
=Commerce=—Chillies or Pod Pepper are shipped from Zanzibar, Western
Africa and Natal, but no general statistics of the quantity imported
into Great Britain are accessible.
The exports from Sierra Leone in 1871 reached 7258 lb.[1666] The colony
of Natal, which produces Cayenne Pepper in the county of Victoria,
where sugar cane and coffee are also grown, shipped in the same year
9072 lb.[1667]
Official returns[1668] show that in 1871 Singapore imported 1071 cwt.
(119,952 lb.) of chillies, chiefly from Penang and Pegu. The spice is
largely consumed by the Chinese.
Bombay imported of dried chillies in the year 1872-3, 5567 cwt.
(623,504 lb.) principally from the Madras Presidency, and exported 3323
cwt.[1669]
=Uses=—Capsicum on account of its pungent properties is often
administered as a local stimulant in the form of gargle, and
occasionally as a liniment; and internally to promote digestion. In all
warm countries it is much employed as a condiment.