Research progress on the chemical composition, physiological function, and application of pepper

April 01, 2024

Pepper (Piper nigrum L.), also known as black Sichuan, white Sichuan, king pepper, and floating pepper, is known as the "king of spices" and is a perennial evergreen vine plant. Pepper is native to India and mainly distributed in tropical and subtropical regions. Its main producing countries include India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Brazil, and China.
In China, pepper is mainly distributed in Guangxi, Guangdong, Yunnan, Hainan, and Taiwan. This article reviews the research progress on the chemical composition, physiological functions, and applications of pepper both domestically and internationally in recent years, in order to provide a basis for the rational development and utilization of pepper resources.

01
Classification and nutritional components of pepper

Pepper can be divided into black pepper, white pepper, and green pepper according to different processing methods.
Black pepper is made by drying pepper fruit without peeling, and was included in the list of dual-purpose traditional Chinese medicine by the Ministry of Health of China in 2002.
White pepper is made by peeling and drying fresh pepper fruits.
Green pepper is made by drying fresh fruits of seven or eight ripe peppers after pre-treatment.

From the Chinese Food Composition List, it can be seen that pepper contains rich nutritional components (see Table 1) and various bioactive components, including alkaloids, volatile oils, organic acids, coumarins, phenolic compounds, flavonoids, saponins, sterols, etc. Among them, volatile oils, alkaloids, and organic acids also contain various substances.

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02
The physiological functions of pepper

According to materials such as "Compendium of Materia Medica" and "Bencao Bian Du", pepper has a hot and spicy nature, and has the functions of warming the middle and dispersing cold, strengthening the stomach and relieving pain. It is mainly used to treat spleen and stomach deficiency cold, vomiting, and diarrhea.
Due to its various bioactive ingredients mentioned above, pepper has various physiological functions such as antibacterial, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anticonvulsant, anticancer, insecticidal, etc. Its main physiological functions are described as follows.

2.1 Antibacterial effects

Pepper has broad-spectrum antibacterial properties, and extracts from pepper fruit and pepper leaves have strong antibacterial effects on certain plant pathogens and common microorganisms in food.
According to reports, black pepper essential oil has inhibitory effects on the growth of five pathogenic fungi, namely pear black spot fungus, wheat scab fungus, tomato gray mold fungus, chili wilt fungus, and watermelon wilt fungus. The acetone extract from pepper leaves has an inhibitory rate of 83.64% on the mycelial growth of Dioscorea anthracis;
Pepper extract has inhibitory effects on Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella, yeast, and Aspergillus niger;
The ethanol extract of pepper also has a strong inhibitory effect on 176 bacterial strains from 12 different genera in the oral cavity.

2.2 Antioxidant effects

Black and white pepper essential oils both have the ability to scavenge superoxide anion radicals, hydroxyl radicals, and resist linoleic acid lipid peroxidation. Within a certain concentration range, the ability of black and white pepper essential oils to scavenge superoxide anion radicals is stronger than BHT, PG, and VC. Among them, black pepper essential oil has stronger antioxidant properties than white pepper essential oil.

2.3 Antitumor activity

The anti-tumor activity of pepper is mainly attributed to the alkaloid components containing piperidine. Piperine has anti-tumor activity of inhibiting the proliferation and inducing apoptosis of human gastric cancer SGC-7901 cells and human HePG2 liver cancer cells, and has a significant apoptotic effect on human liver cancer SMMC-7721 cells.

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03
Development and utilization of pepper

3.1 Primary food processing field

At present, black and white pepper granules and black and white pepper powder are the most common pepper primary processing products in the market, which mainly play the role of seasoning in the food field. Whether cooking chicken, fried fish, Red-Stewed Duck, making soup, or frying vegetables, boiling radish, braising lotus root, etc., putting a proper amount of pepper in dishes can remove fishy smell, enhance fragrance, inhibit odor and eliminate greasy.
Pepper is a very important raw material in Western cuisine, especially in the processing of Western meat products. It has created a series of black pepper products, including "Black Spicy Beef Bracelets", "Black Spicy Chenpi Duck", "Black Spicy Money Belly", "Black Pepper Duck Breast Conditioning Products", and "Black Pepper Steak". Among them, "Black Pepper Steak" is one of the most familiar and popular products in Western cuisine.

3.2 Food deep processing field

In the deep processing products of pepper, piperine, white pepper oil, black pepper oil, white pepper oleoresin, black pepper oleoresin, and black pepper extract have been included in the use standards of food additives (GB 2760-2104). In pepper oleoresin, almost all the aroma and spicy substances in pepper are contained, and its flavor and aroma are equivalent to 50 times the quality of pure pepper powder, which can directly replace pepper in food.
According to the physiological function of pepper, pepper can develop functional foods to fight stomach disease, gastric ulcer, atherosclerosis, epilepsy, convulsion, tumor, chronic sinusitis, depression, and a series of functional foods to regulate blood fat, brain function and immunity.
Pepper (alkali/oleoresin) can be used to make more than 10 types of functional foods targeting rheumatism, diarrhea, pain, radiation, emergency effects, obesity, oxidative activity, as well as regulating menopause, blood sugar, male sexual dysfunction, and more.

3.3 Food preservation field

Spices not only give food a special sensory flavor, but also have antibacterial and preservative functions. The use of 0.2g/100mL water extract of white pepper to treat chilled pork tenderloin has a good preservation effect, and the alcohol soluble extract of white pepper and cinnamon has a preservation effect on chilled chicken. Developing pepper as a preservative is another way to increase its economic value.

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2024-02-26

Shaanxi Huike Botanical Development Co., Ltd.

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