☘ Ayurvedam - Black Pepper

Black pepper is the fruit of the black pepper plant from the piperaceae family and is used as both a spice and a medicine.

Black pepper is considered an important healing spice in Ayurveda. Along with long pepper and ginger, it forms the herbal preparation called trikatu, an important ingredient in many ayurvedic formulations. It has cleansing and antioxidant properties, and it is a bioavailability enhancer — it helps transport the benefits of other herbs to the different parts of the body. It helps the free flow of oxygen to the brain, helps enhance digestion and circulation, stimulates the appetite, and helps maintain respiratory system health and the health of the joints.

Black pepper is a warming spice and contributes the pungent taste. It is excellent for pacifying Kapha, helps pacify Vata and increases Pitta.

The active ingredient called ‘piperine’ gives black pepper its characteristic pungent taste; it also contains a host of nutrients including magnesium, calcium, zinc, chromium, potassium, manganese, iron and vitamins A and C. It is excellent for pacifying the Kapha and Vata, but increases Pitta aspects.

Types of Pepper:

All four peppercorns, green, black, white and red, come from the same vine, the Piper Nigrum. The differences in colour and nuances of flavour are the result of processing methods and harvesting at various stages of ripeness. During the harvest season, around March-April, the whole fruit spikes are hand-picked when the fruits are mature but still green for black pepper; and when a few fruits have turned red and the rest are yellow.

🌾 Black pepper:

Black pepper is produced from the still-green, unripe drupes of the pepper plant. The drupes are cooked briefly in hot water, both to clean them and to prepare them for drying; the heat ruptures cell walls in the pepper, speeding the work of browning enzymes during drying. The drupes are dried in the sun for several days, during which the pepper around the seed shrinks and darkens into a thin, wrinkled black layer.

🌾 White pepper:

White pepper consists solely of the seed of the pepper plant, with the darker-coloured skin of the pepper fruit removed. This is accomplished by a process call retting, where fully ripe yellow and red pepper berries are soaked in water for a few days, during which the flesh of the pepper softens and decomposes. Rubbing then removes what remains of the fruit, and the naked seed is sun dried.

🌾 Red pepper:

Red pepper is produced from the red fully mature berries, following the same process as the black pepper. After being hand sorted to separate them from the green drupes, the red fruits are cooked briefly, before being spread out to dry in the sun for several days. Red pepper is a rarity since it is a risky business to leave the spikes on the vine for so long. Drought or heavy rain can wipe out an entire crop, as can hungry birds.

🌾 LONG KAMPOT PEPPER:

Names after its curious catkin-shaped fruits, the long pepper is native of Java, Indonesia. Starling Farm is one of the very few plantation growing long pepper in the region. This rare spice takes the advantage of the exceptional “terroir” of Kampot, with its mineral-rich soil and specific climate, and provides a unique type of pepper. Being both pungent and sweet, its complex taste is also sharper and hotter than black pepper.

This uncommon and under-appreciated spice is slowly making its way back into the hearts and recipes of the best cuisines around the world.

Black peppers are used globally for flavouring and works best when added towards the end of cooking as its oils tend to evaporate during the process of cooking.

•Stimulates Appetite and Digestion – Black pepper stimulates the appetite through the sense of smell, making it an excellent stimulant for poor appetites. Mix half a teaspoon of black pepper powder with one tablespoon jaggery and take regularly till there is improvement. It also increases hydrochloric acid levels to help in digestion and controls conditions like bloating, colic, constipation and flatulence.

•Improves Absorption – The magical piperine molecule from black pepper increases the bio-availability of important nutrients for absorption by the body; nutrients such as selenium, beta-carotene, curcumin and vitamins A and C are absorbed in greater quantities in the presence of piperine. It also slows down intestinal activity to enhance absorption of nutrients.

•Encourages Weight Loss – Phytonutrients present on the out layers of the peppercorn help in breakdown of fat cells and prevent fat accumulation in the body. So even though it stimulates appetite, it also prevents weight gain by improving metabolism. It also encourages perspiration and urination to flush out toxins and excess water from the body.

•Decongestant – Black pepper is great for loosening phlegm and stuffy noses. It is antimicrobial. Drink warm water with half a tablespoon of black pepper powder and honey 2-3 times daily. Or you could do steam inhalation with the powder added into the water.

•Relieves Arthritic pain – Piperine improves circulation as well as reduces pain due to its anti-inflammatory properties and is great in treating joint pains of arthritis. It is also useful in treating gum inflammation and bleeding gums.

•Fights Cancer – Its antioxidant qualities are useful in fighting colon and breast cancers. It also protects against lifestyle diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and heart disease.

•Anti-depressant :– Piperine increases the serotonin levels and secretion of endorphins. While the former is important in mood stimulation, the latter, reduces anxiety and melancholy and act as natural pain killers.

•Skin care – It helps to cure vitiligo, which is the skin disease that causes the skin to lose its normal pigmentation and turn white; so this black pepper helps to cure this skin disease and also reduces the chances of skin cancer.

Side effects:

Because of its hotness, it increases Pitta. Hence, it needs to be used carefully in people with gastritis, burning sensation and sensitive stomach.

Because of its Avrushya – anaphrodisiac effect, it needs be used in less quantities or its long term usage is best avoided in men with infertility problems.

Pitta dominant people may face black pepper allergy in the form of vomiting, diarrhoea, abdominal cramps, watery eyes etc.

Excess consumption of pepper can cause abdominal pain, vomiting, burning sensation in bladder and while urination, urticaria etc

It can be taken in moderate quantities during pregnancy, lactation and in children.