Black pepper (Piper nigrum) is a flowering vine in the family of Piperaceae. Its dried fruit is used as a spice.

The fruit peppercorn when dried, is approximately 5 millimeters in diameter, dark red when fully mature and has a single seed.

Peppercorns, and the powdered pepper derived from grinding them, may be described simply as pepper, or more precisely as black pepper, white pepper, or green pepper. Green peppercorns are simply the immature black peppercorns.

Black peppers are native to India and are extensively cultivated there. Currently the world’s largest producer and exporter of pepper is Vietnam.

Dried ground pepper has been used since ages for both its flavor and as medicinal properties. Black pepper is the world’s most treasured and traded spice. It is one of the most common spices and may be found on nearly every dinner table along with table salt.

Medicinal properties:-

1. Used to treat sore throat, throat congestion and cough

2. Has anti oxidant and anti carcinogenic properties.

“Pepper” was used in a figurative sense to mean “spirit” or “energy” at least as far back as the 1840s; in the early 20th century , this was shortened to ‘pep’.