Pepper Long

Description

Pepper long is the dried fruit of Piper longum which is a slender, aromatic plant with creeping jointed stems and perennial woody roots. The leaves are 5-9 cm long, 3-5 cm wide, ovate, cordate with broad rounded lobes at the base. Female spikes are cylindrical, male spikes are larger and slender. Female spikes are 1.3-2.5 cm long, 4.5 mm diameter, fruits ovoid, yellowish orange, minute, drupe and are sunk in the fleshy spike. The spike are red when ripe.

Origin and Distribution

The plant is distributed from Central Himalayas to Assam, Lower hills of Bengal, evergreen forests of Western Ghats, Nicobar Islands, Uttar Pradesh and Nepal. The Indonesian or Malaysian long pepper is from Piper retrofractum.
Pepper long is cultivated on a large scale in lime stone soil and in heavy rainfall areas where relative humidity is high.

Uses

It is used as a spice and also in pickles and preserves. The fruits and roots are used as medicine for respiratory disease and as counter irritant and analgesic for muscular pains and inflammation. It has carminative, haematinic and anti-helminhic properties.

Botanical name Family name Commercial part
Piper longum Piperaceae Fruit

Indian Names

• Assamese: Piplu, Pipal
  Hindi : Pipli
  Bengali : Piplamore (root), Pipli
  Gujarati: Pipli
  Kannada : Hippali, Hippalibali, Kuna
  Sindhii : Pippli
  Malayalam: Tippali
  Marathi : Pimpli
  Oriya : Pippoli
  Punjabi : Piplamul (root)
  Sanskrit: Pippali
  Tamil : Tippili, Sirimulam
  Telugu : Tippili, Pippuloo
  Urdu : Pipul

Name in International languages

• Chinese : Bat but
  Czech : Pepr dlouhy
  Dutch : Langwerpige peper
  French : Poivre long
  German : Langer peper
  Italian : Pepe lungo