Black pepper

The “black gold” of Malabar – pepper from Kerala drew Roman and Arab merchants to India, and eventually Vasco da Gama.

A woody perennial climber of the pepper family that uses adventitious roots to climb trees or poles to a height of several metres. It has glossy, heart-shaped leaves and small flowers in hanging spikes, which develop into clusters of round drupes – green at first, red when ripe. Black pepper is the unripe fruit dried in the sun until the skin turns black and wrinkled, while white pepper is made from ripe fruit with the outer layer removed. Its pungency comes from piperine.

Significance in the country

Pepper is native to the Western Ghats and was the most valuable commodity of the Malabar Coast – the Romans and Arabs traded in it, and in 1498 Vasco da Gama sailed to Calicut for it, opening the sea route from Europe to India. Today pepper is grown mainly in Karnataka and Kerala, often on the shade trees of coffee plantations.

Where it grows

Mainly in the Western Ghats – in Kerala (Wayanad, Idukki) and Karnataka (Kodagu, Chikmagalur, Hassan), and on a smaller scale in Tamil Nadu, Goa, Assam, Meghalaya and the Andaman Islands.

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