Pharmacy name: black pepper (unripe, unpeeled fruits) – Piperis nigri fructus (formerly: Fructus Piperis nigri); white pepper (ripe, peeled fruits) – Piperis fructus albus (formerly: Fructus piperis albi).
Botanical description. Climbing shrub with large long-petiolate dark green leaves and spike-shaped inflorescence. Having spread from the forests of the Malabar coast in the Near East, pepper is now grown in the bulk of the tropical regions.
Active ingredients: essential oil, piperine – a carrier of peppery taste, enzymes, resins and a number of other substances.
Healing action and application. Nowadays it is used as a pungent aromatic spice to stimulate digestion; earlier – as a medicine for feverish conditions, diseases of the stomach and throat. It is also part of the ointment for scab of the head. In addition, a spice called white pepper is obtained from ripe and peeled from the fleshy part of the fruit, which was previously used, especially in folk medicine, for hemorrhoids. Single dose: 5 to 15 grains.