Negro Pepper

                            (Xylopia aethiopica [Dun.] A. Rich.)

 

Dried negro pepper fruits

Negro pepper pods grow in clusters

Used plant part

Fruits; they look rather like small, twisted bean-pods. They are dark brown, cylindrical, 2.5 to 5 cm long and 4 to 6 mm thick; the contours of the seeds are visible from outside. Each pod contains 5 to 8 kidney-shaped seeds of approximately 5 mm length. The hull is aromatic, but not the seed itself.

Plant family

Annonaceae (custard apple family).

Sensoric quality

Aromatic, quite pungent and slightly bitter, comparable to a mixture of cubeb pepper and nutmeg. For a comparative discussion of pungent and bitter spices, see sichuan pepper and fenugreek, respectively.

Main constituents

In negro pepper fruits, the essential oil (2 to 4.5%) has been found to consist of beta-pinene, 1,8-cineol, alpha-terpineol, terpinene-4-ol, paradol, bisabolene and other terpenes. In other work, linalool (E)-beta-ocimene, alpha-farnesene, beta-pinene, alpha-pinene, myrtenol and beta-phellandrene were found, furthermore traces of vanillin and 3-ethylphenol (Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 47, 3285, 1999) (online)
 

Dried negro pepper fruits

Dried negro pepper fruits

Among the non-volatile constituents, tetracyclic diterpenes of the kaurane type have been identified; the kaurane structures are based on a tetracyclo[11. 2. 1. 0(1,10). 0(4,9)]hexadecane-skeleton. Kauranes and the structurally similar kolavanes and trachylobanes also appear in the bark. (Phytochemistry, 21, 1365, 1982), (Phytochemistry, 36, 109, 1994)

The essential oils of the stem bark (0.85%) and the leaves (0.5%) of X. aromatica have also been investigated. The bark oil consists mainly of alpha-pinene, trans-pinocarveol, verbenone and myrtenol and differs remarkably from the leaf oil (spathulenol, cryptone, beta-caryophyllene and limonene) (Planta medica, 60, 282, 1994)

Origin

Tropical Africa (Ethiopia to Ghana), where both the species X. aethiopica and X. striata are used for local cooking. In South America, X. aromatica (burro pepper), has found similar applications among Brazilian Indios.

Etymology

Xylopia is a compression from Greek xŭlon pikrón "bitter wood", aethiopica refers to the origin of the tree (though most of it grows in Ghana).
 

Negro pepper has been used as a pepper substitute in Europe, but is (to my knowledge) not more commercially available today. Some books written in the sixties claim that negro pepper has been, at this time, used as a pepper substitute (and possibly adulteration), but by now it seems to have totally vanished from the international market.