Black pepper comes from the pepper plant, a smooth woody vine that can grow up to 33 feet in hot and humid tropical climates. They begin to bear small white clustered flowers after 3 to 4 years and develop into berries known as peppercorns. Ground peppercorns produce the spice we call pepper.
This chart graphically details the %DV that a serving of Black pepper provides for each of the nutrients of which it is a good, very good, or excellent source according to our Food Rating System. Additional information about the amount of these nutrients provided by Black pepper can be found in the Food Rating System Chart. A link that takes you to the In-Depth Nutritional Profile for Black pepper, featuring information over 80 nutrients, can be found under the Food Rating System Chart.
Black pepper
2.00 tsp
4.28 grams
10.88 calories |
| Nutrient | Amount | DV
(%) | Nutrient
Density | World's Healthiest
Foods Rating |
|---|
| manganese | 0.24 mg | 12.0 | 19.9 | excellent |
| vitamin K | 6.88 mcg | 8.6 | 14.2 | very good |
| iron | 1.24 mg | 6.9 | 11.4 | very good |
| dietary fiber | 1.12 g | 4.5 | 7.4 | good |
World's Healthiest
Foods Rating | Rule |
|---|
| excellent | DV>=75% | OR | Density>=7.6 | AND | DV>=10% |
| very good | DV>=50% | OR | Density>=3.4 | AND | DV>=5% |
| good | DV>=25% | OR | Density>=1.5 | AND | DV>=2.5% |
|
Black Pepper nutritional details :
| Water | 0.67 g |
| Energy | 16 kcal |
| Energy | 68 kj |
| Protein | 0.7 g |
| Total lipid (fat) | 0.21 g |
| Ash | 0.28 g |
| Carbohydrate, by difference | 4.15 g |
| Fiber, total dietary | 1.7 g |
| Sugars, total | 0.04 g |
| Calcium, Ca | 28 mg |
| Iron, Fe | 1.85 mg |
| Magnesium, Mg | 12 mg |
| Phosphorus, P | 11 mg |
| Potassium, K | 81 mg |
| Sodium, Na | 3 mg |
| Zinc, Zn | 0.09 mg |
| Copper, Cu | 0.072 mg |
| Manganese, Mn | 0.36 mg |
| Selenium, Se | 0.2 mcg |
| Fluoride, F | 2.2 mcg |
| Vitamin C, total ascorbic acid | 1.3 mg |
| Thiamin | 0.007 mg |
| Riboflavin | 0.015 mg |
| Niacin | 0.073 mg |
| Pantothenic acid | ~ mg |
| Vitamin B-6 | 0.022 mg |
| Folate, total | 1 mcg |
| Folic acid | ~ mcg |
| Folate, food | 1 mcg |
| Folate, DFE | 1 mcg_DFE |
| Choline, total | 0.7 mg |
| Betaine | 0.6 mg |
| Vitamin B-12 | ~ mcg |
| Vitamin B-12, added | ~ mcg |
| Vitamin A, IU | 19 IU |
| Vitamin A, RAE | 1 mcg_RAE |
| Retinol | ~ mcg |
| Vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol) | 0.05 mg |
| Vitamin E, added | ~ mg |
| Tocopherol, beta | ~ mg |
| Tocopherol, gamma | 0.29 mg |
| Tocopherol, delta | 0.01 mg |
| Vitamin K (phylloquinone) | 10.5 mcg |
| Fatty acids, total saturated | 0.063 g |
| 4:0 | ~ g |
| 6:0 | ~ g |
| 8:0 | ~ g |
| 10:0 | ~ g |
| 12:0 | 0.002 g |
| 14:0 | 0.003 g |
| 16:0 | 0.058 g |
| 18:0 | ~ g |
| Fatty acids, total monounsaturated | 0.065 g |
| 16:1 undifferentiated | ~ g |
| 18:1 undifferentiated | 0.065 g |
| 20:1 | ~ g |
| 22:1 undifferentiated | ~ g |
| Fatty acids, total polyunsaturated | 0.072 g |
| 18:2 undifferentiated | 0.062 g |
| 18:3 undifferentiated | 0.01 g |
| 18:4 | ~ g |
| 20:4 undifferentiated | ~ g |
| 20:5 n-3 | ~ g |
| 22:5 n-3 | ~ g |
| 22:6 n-3 | ~ g |
| Cholesterol | ~ mg |
| Phytosterols | 6 mg |
| Alcohol, ethyl | ~ g |
| Caffeine | ~ mg |
| Theobromine | ~ mg |
| Carotene, beta | 10 mcg |
| Carotene, alpha | ~ mcg |
| Cryptoxanthin, beta | 3 mcg |
| Lycopene | ~ mcg |
| Lutein + zeaxanthin | 13 mcg |
Breakdown
Daily Values
Legend
Fat 
Protein 
Carbs 
Alcohol 
Other
Nutritional Analysis - Black Pepper
Good points
- Low in saturated fat
- No cholesterol
- Very low in sodium
- Very low in sugar
- High in calcium
- Very high in dietary fiber
- Very high in iron
- Very high in manganese
- High in magnesium
- High in potassium
- High in vitamin C
Nutrition Grade
96% confidence
- Health Benefits
- Description
- History
- How to Select and Store
- How to Enjoy
- Individual Concerns
- Nutritional Profile
- References
Health Benefits
Improve Digestion and Promote Intestinal Health
Black pepper (
Piper nigrum)stimulates the taste buds in such a way that an alert is sent to to the stomach to increase hydrochloric acid secretion, thereby improving digestion. Hydrochloric acid is necessary for the digestion of proteins and other food components in the stomach. When the body's production of hydrochloric acid is insufficient, food may sit in the stomach for an extended period of time, leading to heartburn or indigestion, or it may pass into the intestines, where it can be used as a food source for unfriendly gut bacteria, whose activities produce gas, irritation, and/or diarrhea or constipation.
Black pepper has long been recognized as a
carminitive, (a substance that helps prevent the formation of intestinal gas), a property likely due to its beneficial effect of stimulating hydrochloric acid production. In addition, black pepper has
diaphoretic (promotes sweating), and
diuretic (promotes urination) properties.
Black pepper has demonstrated impressive antioxidant and antibacterial effects--yet another way in which this wonderful seasoning promotes the health of the digestive tract. And not only does black pepper help you derive the most benefit from your food, the outer layer of the peppercorn stimulates the breakdown of fat cells, keeping you slim while giving you energy to burn.
Description
Black pepper comes from the berries of the pepper plant. Black pepper, green pepper and white peppercorns are actually the same fruit (
Piper nigrum); the difference in their color is a reflection of varying stages of development and processing methods.
Black peppercorns are made by picking the pepper berries when they are half ripe and just about to turn red. They are then left to dry which causes them to shrivel and become dark in color. Alternatively, green peppercorns are picked while still unripe and green in color, while white peppercorns are picked when very ripe and subsequently soaked in brine to remove their dark outer shell leaving just the white pepper seed.
Pink peppercorns are actually from a completely different plant species (
Schinus molle) that is related to ragweed.
Black pepper is the most pungent and flavorful of all types of peppers and it is available as whole or cracked peppercorns or ground into powder.
History
Native to India, pepper has played a very important role throughout history and has been a prized spice since ancient times. Since ancient Greece, pepper has held such high prestige that it was not only used as a seasoning but as a currency and a sacred offering. Pepper was used to both honor the gods and to pay taxes and ransoms. During the fall of ancient Rome, the invading barbarians were even honored by being given black pepper. Additionally, in the Middle Ages the wealth of a man was oftentimes measured by his stockpile of pepper.
The reason that pepper was so cherished is that it served important culinary purposes. Not only could its pungency spice up otherwise bland foods, but it could disguise a food's lack of freshness, the latter being an especially important quality in the times before efficient means of preservation.
Pepper became an important spice that catalyzed much of the spice trade. This not only led to exploration of many undiscovered lands, but also to the development of major merchant cities in Europe and the Middle East.
Today, the major commercial producers of pepper are India and Indonesia.
How to Select and Store
Black pepper is available whole, crushed or ground into powder. To ensure best flavor, buy whole peppercorns and grind them yourself in a mill just before adding to a recipe. In addition to superior flavor, buying whole peppercorns will help to ensure that you are purchasing unadulterated pepper since ground pepper is oftentimes mixed with other spices. Whole peppercorns should be heavy, compact and free of any blemishes.
Even through dried herbs and spices like black pepper are widely available in supermarkets, you may want to explore the local spice stores in your area. Oftentimes, these stores feature an expansive selection of dried herbs and spices that are of superior quality and freshness than those offered in regular markets. Just like with other dried spices, when purchasing black pepper try to select that which is organically grown since this will give you more assurance that it has not been irradiated (among other potential adverse effects, irradiating black pepper may lead to a significant decrease in its vitamin C content.)
Black pepper should be kept in a tightly sealed glass container in a cool, dark and dry place. Whole peppercorns will keep almost indefinitely, while ground pepper will stay fresh for about three months. Pepper can also be frozen although this will make its flavor more pronounced.
How to Enjoy
Tips for Preparing Black Pepper:
Add pepper that you have freshly ground in a mill at the end of the cooking process. Since it loses its flavor and aroma if cooked for too long, adding it near the end will help to preserve its flavor.
A Few Quick Serving Ideas:
Coat steaks with crushed peppercorns before cooking to create the classic dish, steak au poivre.
As the pungent taste of black pepper is a natural complement to the deep, berry-like flavor of venison, use it to flavor this meat when preparing venison steaks or venison stews.
Keep a pepper mill on your dining table so that you can add its intense spark to a host of different recipes that you prepare.
Olive oil, lemon juice, salt and cracked pepper make a delicious salad dressing.
Individual Concerns
Black pepper is not a commonly allergenic food and is not known to contain measurable amounts of oxalates or purines.
Nutritional Profile
Black pepper is an excellent source of manganese, a very good source of iron and vitamin K, and a good source of dietary fiber.
In-Depth Nutritional Profile
In addition to the nutrients highlighted in our ratings chart, an in-depth nutritional profile for Black pepper is also available. This profile includes information on a full array of nutrients, including carbohydrates, sugar, soluble and insoluble fiber, sodium, vitamins, minerals, fatty acids, amino acids and more.
Introduction to Food Rating System Chart
In order to better help you identify foods that feature a high concentration of nutrients for the calories they contain, we created a Food Rating System. This system allows us to highlight the foods that are especially rich in particular nutrients. The following chart shows the nutrients for which this food is either an excellent, very good, or good source (below the chart you will find a table that explains these qualifications). If a nutrient is not listed in the chart, it does not necessarily mean that the food doesn't contain it. It simply means that the nutrient is not provided in a sufficient amount or concentration to meet our rating criteria. (To view this food's in-depth nutritional profile that includes values for dozens of nutrients - not just the ones rated as excellent, very good, or good - please use the link below the chart.) To read this chart accurately, you'll need to glance up in the top left corner where you will find the name of the food and the serving size we used to calculate the food's nutrient composition. This serving size will tell you how much of the food you need to eat to obtain the amount of nutrients found in the chart. Now, returning to the chart itself, you can look next to the nutrient name in order to find the nutrient amount it offers, the percent Daily Value (DV%) that this amount represents, the nutrient density that we calculated for this food and nutrient, and the rating we established in our rating system. For most of our nutrient ratings, we adopted the government standards for food labeling that are found in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's "Reference Values for Nutrition Labeling."
Notes
- ^ "Piper nigrum information from NPGS/GRIN". www.ars-grin.gov. http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/taxon.pl?28589. Retrieved 2 March 2008.
- ^ Pippali is Sanskrit for long pepper. Black pepper is marica. Ancient Greek and Latin borrowed pippali to refer to either.
- ^ Douglas Harper's Online Etymology Dictionary entries for pepper and pep. Retrieved 13 November 2005.
- ^ "Cleaner technology for white pepper production". The Hindu Business line. 27 March 2008. http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2008/03/27/stories/2008032751741300.htm. Retrieved 29 January 2009.
- ^ See Thai Ingredients Glossary. Retrieved 6 November 2005.
- ^ Ochef, Using fresh green peppercorns. Retrieved 6 November 2005.
- ^ Katzer, Gernot (2006). Pepper. Gernot Katzer's Spice Pages. Retrieved 12 August 2006.
- ^ Peppercorns, from Penzeys Spices. Retrieved 17 October 2006.
- ^ Pepper varieties information from A Cook's Wares. Retrieved 6 November 2005.
- ^ a b "BLACK PEPPER" (PDF). The Philippine Department of Agriculture. 20 November 2006. http://www.da.gov.ph/wps/wcm/resources/file/ebb81841763712b/black%20pepper.pdf. Retrieved 29 January 2009. [dead link]
- ^ "Piper nigrum Linnaeus". Flora of China. http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=200005581.
- ^ a b Jaramillo, M. Alejandra; Manos (2001). "Phylogeny and Patterns of Floral Diversity in the Genus Piper (Piperaceae)". American Journal of Botany 88 (4): 706. doi:10.2307/2657072. PMID 11302858. http://www.amjbot.org/cgi/content/full/88/4/706.
- ^ Davidson & Saberi 178
- ^ J. Innes Miller, The Spice Trade of the Roman Empire (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969), p. 80
- ^ Dalby p. 93.
- ^ Jack Turner (10 August 2004). Spice. Random House. ISBN 0375407219.
- ^ Stephanie Fitzgerald (8 September 2008). Ramses II, Egyptian Pharaoh, Warrior, and Builder. Compass Point Books. p. 88. ISBN 075653836X. http://books.google.com/?id=J8mGcvFkatIC&pg=PT24&lpg=PT24&dq=Rameses+Peppercorn. Retrieved 29 January 2008.
- ^ From Bostock and Riley's 1855 translation. Text online.
- ^ Innes Miller, The Spice Trade, p. 83
- ^ Translation from Turner, p 94. The riddle's answer is of course pepper.
- ^ Dalby p. 156; also Turner pp. 108–109, though Turner does go on to discuss spices (not pepper specifically) being used to disguise the taste of partially spoiled wine or ale.
- ^ H. J. D. Dorman and S. G. Deans (2000). "Antimicrobial agents from plants: antibacterial activity of plant volatile oils". Journal of Applied Microbiology 88 (2): 308. doi:10.1046/j.1365-2672.2000.00969.x. PMID 10736000. . Full text at Blackwell website; purchase required. "Spices, which are used as integral ingredients in cuisine or added as flavoring agents to foods, are present in insufficient quantities for their antimicrobial properties to be significant."
- ^ Jaffee p. 10.
- ^ Dalby pp. 74–75. The argument that jujiang was long pepper goes back to the 4th century CE botanical writings of Ji Han; Hui-lin Li's 1979 translation of and commentary on Ji Han's work makes the case that it was piper nigrum.
- ^ Dalby p. 77.
- ^ Yule, Henry; Cordier, Henri, Translation from The Travels of Marco Polo: The Complete Yule-Cordier Edition, Vol. 2, Dover. ISBN 0-486-27587-6. p. 204.
- ^ Turner p. 160.
- ^ Turner p. 171.
- ^ U.S. Library of Congress Science Reference Services "Everyday Mysteries", Why does pepper make you sneeze?. Retrieved November 12, 2005.
- ^ a b James A. Duke (16 August 1993). CRC Handbook of Alternative Cash Crops. CRC Press. p. 395. ISBN 0849336201. http://books.google.com/?id=-tg7R4hU8hkC&pg=PA395&lpg=PA395&dq=Pepper+safrole. Retrieved 29 January 2009.
- ^ Thanissaro Bhikkhu (30 November 1990). Buddhist Monastic Code II. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521367085. http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/bmc2/bmc2.ch05.html. Retrieved 29 January 2008.
- ^ Effect of pepper and bismuth subsalicylate on gastric pain and surface hydrophobicity in the rat. Aliment Pharmacol Ther. 1998 May; 12(5):483-90. Lichtenberger LM, Romero JJ, Carryl OR, Illich PA, Walters ET. Department of Integrative Biology, The University of Texas-Houston Medical School.
- ^ The antioxidant and radical scavenging activities of black pepper (Piper nigrum) seeds. Int J Food Sci Nutr. 2005 Nov; 56(7):491-9.G. Department of Chemistry, Atatürk University
- ^ Effect of spices on lipid metabolism in 1,2-dimethylhydrazine-induced rat colon carcinogenesis. J Med Food. 2006 Summer; 9(2):237-45. Nalini N, Manju V, Menon VP. Department of Biochemistry, Annamalai University.
- ^ Malini T, Arunakaran J, Aruldhas MM, Govindarajulu P. Effects of piperine on the lipid composition and enzymes of the pyruvate-malate cycle in the testis of the rat in vivo. Biochem Mol Biol Int. 1999;47(3):537-45
- ^ Amides from Piper nigrum L. with dissimilar effects on melanocyte proliferation in-vitro. J Pharm Pharmacol. 2007 Apr; 59(4):529-36. Lin Z, Liao Y, Venkatasamy R, Hider RC, Soumyanath A. Department of Pharmacy, King's College London.
- ^ UV irradiation affects melanocyte stimulatory activity and protein binding of piperine. Photochem Photobiol. 2006 Nov-Dec; 82(6):1541-8. Soumyanath A, Venkatasamy R, Joshi M, Faas L, Adejuyigbe B, Drake AF, Hider RC, Young AR. Department of Pharmacy, King's College London.
- ^ http://www.tis-gdv.de/tis_e/ware/gewuerze/pfeffer/pfeffer.htm#selbsterhitzung
- ^ a b McGee p. 428.
- ^ Montagne, Prosper (2001). Larousse Gastronomique. Hamlyn. p. 726. ISBN 0-600-60235-4. OCLC 50747863 83960122 47231315 50747863 83960122. "Mill".
- ^ Jaffee p. 12, table 2.
- ^ "Karvy's special Reports — Seasonal Outlook Report Pepper" (PDF). Karvy Comtrade Limited. 15 May 2008. http://www.karvycomtrade.com/downloads/karvySpecialReports/karvysSpecialReports_20080515_01.pdf. Retrieved 29 January 2008.
References
