History of pepper in the spice trade
Learn about black pepper (Piper nigrum): how it is produced, its history in the spice trade, the use of its berries (peppercorns) in food, and the compounds that give black pepper its pungency.
© American Chemical Society (A Britannica Publishing Partner)
-
Contunico © ZDF Studios GmbH, MainzLearn about the Christmas traditions of Advent calendars and wreaths.
-
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month recognizes the achievements of Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, and Native Hawaiians.
-
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.Memorial Day is celebrated on the last Monday in May.
-
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.Learn about Columbus Day, a U.S. holiday.
-
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc./Kenny ChmielewskiThe first circumnavigation of the globe was led by Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan, who was charged with finding a Spanish route to the Moluccas. He was killed on Mactan Island in 1521, but the expedition returned to Spain under the command of Juan Sebastián del Cano.
-
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer greeting French President Charles de Gaulle.
-
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.At first, Ferdinand and Isabella rejected Columbus's petition, but Isabella granted it at last, and three ships were built—the Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa María.
Transcript
TODD BRETHAUER: When I'm talking about pepper, yes, I mean the pepper on the kitchen table in hundreds of millions of homes around the world. We don't even think about it, it's so common. 500 years ago it was worth its weight in gold, it was so rare. In fact, it was used as currency in some areas.
In 1492, the profits that were being made in the spice trade were incredible. They were controlled by a monopoly of some Italian city-states. And one of the reasons that Columbus was sent west by Ferdinand and Isabella was so that Spain could get its share of the profits being made in the spice trade.
At that time, pepper made up 90%, by volume, of the spice trade. It was the big moneymaker. And people who worked with it, sailors and dockworkers, had their pockets sewn shut to keep them from stealing it.
Pepper is a vine. It's native to the southwest coast of India, in the Western Ghat mountains, in the modern Indian state of Kerala. The pepper flowers are arranged on a spike with as many as 100 flowers on a single spike. In the next eight months, the pollinated flowers produce their fruit.
We harvest the green pepper berries. They dry and ferment in the sun for four or five days. And the skin and the pulp shrivel and adhere to the seed, and that's the black pepper of commerce. The primary pungent principal of pepper is the alkaloid piperine. It makes up between 5% and 10%, by weight, of the black pepper.
Contributing to the aroma and flavor of pepper are a series of chemicals we call terpenes that are made up of the five carbon basic building block of much of plant biochemistry, called isoprene. Tie two of them together to give a 10 carbon unit, you form limonene, the fragrance on lemons. Link three of them together and you get the flavor of ginger. Link eight of them together and you start developing color that gives us the brilliant oranges of carrots and the reds of watermelons and tomatoes.
In 1492, the profits that were being made in the spice trade were incredible. They were controlled by a monopoly of some Italian city-states. And one of the reasons that Columbus was sent west by Ferdinand and Isabella was so that Spain could get its share of the profits being made in the spice trade.
At that time, pepper made up 90%, by volume, of the spice trade. It was the big moneymaker. And people who worked with it, sailors and dockworkers, had their pockets sewn shut to keep them from stealing it.
Pepper is a vine. It's native to the southwest coast of India, in the Western Ghat mountains, in the modern Indian state of Kerala. The pepper flowers are arranged on a spike with as many as 100 flowers on a single spike. In the next eight months, the pollinated flowers produce their fruit.
We harvest the green pepper berries. They dry and ferment in the sun for four or five days. And the skin and the pulp shrivel and adhere to the seed, and that's the black pepper of commerce. The primary pungent principal of pepper is the alkaloid piperine. It makes up between 5% and 10%, by weight, of the black pepper.
Contributing to the aroma and flavor of pepper are a series of chemicals we call terpenes that are made up of the five carbon basic building block of much of plant biochemistry, called isoprene. Tie two of them together to give a 10 carbon unit, you form limonene, the fragrance on lemons. Link three of them together and you get the flavor of ginger. Link eight of them together and you start developing color that gives us the brilliant oranges of carrots and the reds of watermelons and tomatoes.