Where Do Peppers Come From

Black pepper is native to the Malabar Coast of India and is one of the earliest spices known. Widely used as a spice around the world, pepper also has a limited usage in medicine as a carminative (to relieve flatulence) and as a stimulant of gastric secretions.

Does pepper come from a pepper tree?

The pepper you sprinkle on your food is black pepper, and it comes from Piper nigrum, a flowering vine in the Piperaceae family. … Piper nigra is a spreading, woody vine that grows to about 13 feet high. In the wild it can often be found growing on trees; cultivated plants are usually supported by a pole or trellis.

Why is black pepper called pepper?

Etymology. The word pepper derives from Old English pipor, Latin piper, and Sanskrit pippali for “long pepper”. In the 16th century, people began using pepper to also mean the unrelated New World chili pepper (genus Capsicum).