142 SCIENTIFIC AND APPLIED PHARMACOGNOSY 



PIPERACEJE, OR PEPPER FAMILY 



Mostly herbs and shrubs which are characterized by having 

 secretory cells in the stems and leaves. In the latter they are con- 

 spicuous as small transparent dots. The secretory cells are spheroidal 

 in shape, with suberized walls that contain a whitish or brownish-red 

 secretion. The leaves are all bifacial in structure, the stomata 

 occurring only on the lower surface being usually surrounded by a 

 cluster of epidermal cells in the form of a rosette. Both non-glan- 

 dular and glandular hairs may be present. Calcium oxalate occurs 

 in the form of raphides, rosette aggregates or micro-crystals. The 

 tracheae possess either simple pores or scalariform thickenings. 

 There are four types of vacular bundles in the stems of the plants of 

 this family. 



PIPER. Black Pepper. The fruit of Piper nigrum (Fam. 

 Piperacese), a woody, perennial climber, indigenous to Cochin China 

 and various parts of India and cultivated in the East Indies, West 

 Indies and other tropical countries. The fruit is gathered when full 

 grown, removed from the rachis and dried in the sun. The com- 

 mercial supplies are obtained from plants cultivated in Java, Suma- 

 tra and other islands of the Malay Archipelago, the principal points 

 of export being Batavia and Singapore. The latter furnishes the 

 best grade of black pepper and as it is dried by artificial heat it has a 

 somewhat smoky odor and taste. The most of the other black 

 peppers or peppercorns are dried in the sun. 



Description. Drupe dry, superior, nearly globular, 4 to 6 mm. 

 in diameter, epicarp very thin, easily separable from the sarcocarp; 

 externally blackish-brown, coarsely reticulate, summit with remains 

 of sessile stigma, base with scar of pedicel, sarcocarp and endocarp 

 dark brown and with numerous longitudinal veins; seed atropous, 

 broadly ovoid, 4 to 5 mm. in diameter, externally reddish-brown, 

 micropylar end pointed, chalazal end marked by a small scar; inter- 

 nally yellowish-green ; perisperm large and usually with a cavity near 

 the middle 1 mm. or more wide, the endosperm small, situated at one 

 end of the fruit and embryo small, frequently more or less shriveled; 

 odor aromatic, slightly empyreumatic ; taste aromatic and pungent, 

 i Inner Structure. (Fig. 63). The epicarp consists of a layer of 

 polygonal cells with dark brown content; beneath this, one or more 

 interrupted rows of strongly lignified, more or less radially elongated 

 stone cells occur; the sarcocarp contains a more or less interrupted 

 layer of oil cells with suberized walls; the endocarp consists of char- 

 acteristic stone cells, which are horse-shoe shaped, the inner and radial 



