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Black Pepper Essential Oil
The pepper plant is a perennial woody vine growing to four metres in height on supporting trees, poles, or trellises. It is a spreading vine, rooting readily where trailing stems touch the ground. The flowers are small, produced on pendulous spikes four to eight centimetres long at the leaf nodes, the spikes lengthening to seven to 15 centimetres as the fruit matures. Black pepper is produced from the still-green unripe berries of the pepper plant. The berries are cooked briefly in hot water, both to clean them and to prepare them for drying. The heat ruptures cell walls in the fruit, speeding the work of browning enzymes during drying. The berries are dried in the sun or by machine for several days, during which the fruit around the seed shrinks and darkens into a thin, wrinkled black layer around the seed. Once dried, the fruits are called black peppercorns.
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| Botanical Name: | Piper nigrum L. |
| Family: | Piperaceae |
| Synonyms: | Pepper oil, black pepper, piper, peper, pepe, common pepper, Madagascar pepper. |
| See Also: | |
| Parts Used: | Peppercorns |
| Extraction Method: | Steam Distillation. |
| Appearance: | Colourless to light green liquid |
| Aroma Description: | Sweet, warm, even fruity pepper note |
| Perfume note: | Middle. |
| Consistancy: | |
| Strength of Initial Aroma: | |
| Blends well with: | Bergamot, clary sage, clove, coriander, fennel, frankincense, geranium, ginger, grapefruit, lavender, juniper, lemon, lime, mandarin, sage, sandalwood and ylang-ylang. |
| Historical Uses: | Both black and white pepper essentials have been used in the East for over 4,000 years for medicinal and culinary purposes. In Chinese medicine, the white is used to treat malaria, cholera, dysentery, diarrhea, stomach ache and other digestive problems. |
| Modern Uses: | Used in certain tonic and rubefacient preparations. Used for unusual effects in perfumery work, for example, with rose or carnation in oriental or floral fragrances. The essential and oleoresin are used extensively in the food industry, as well as in alcoholic drinks. Black pepper oil can be used to help in the treatment of pain relief, rheumatism, chills, flu, colds, increase circulation, exhaustion, muscular aches, physical and emotional coldness, nerve tonic and fevers. |
| Cautions: | Non-toxic, non-sensitizing, irritant in high concentration due to rubefacient properties. Use in moderation only. Avoid with kidney disease. Neutralizes homeopathic remedies. |
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