Am.  Jour.  Pharnj.j 
January,  1908.  J 
Examination  of  Black  Pepper, 
5 
Winton  and  Moeller,7  and  Tschirch  and  Oesterle8  can  not  be  consid- 
ered to  be  identical,  but  no  statement  is  made  as  to  the  source  of 
the  specimens  studied. 
A  careful  examination,  however,  shows  that  there  is  considerable 
difference  in  structure  in  the  pepper  corns  from  different  sources. 
Certain  of  the  differences  noted  may  be  due  either  to  the  time  of 
gathering  the  fruits,  or  to  the  manner  of  preparing  them  for  the 
market.  In  Aleppi,  Tellicherry,  and  Singapore  peppers  there  is  a 
sub-epidermal  pigment  layer,  which  is  almost  wanting  in  Lampong 
pepper.  The  lumen  of  the  stone  cells  of  the  epicarp  have  very 
little  pigment  in  Aleppi  pepper,  whereas  in  Lampong  pepper  the 
lumen  of  these  cells  contains  a  dark  reddish-brown  pigment,  while 
in  the  other  varieties  the  pigment  is  lighter  in  color.  The  stone 
cells  of  the  epicarp  vary  both  in  compactness  of  arrangement  and 
in  the  shape  of  the  cells,  as  shown  in  Fig.  2.  They  also  show  a 
tendency  to  develop  in  certain  directions,  varying  from  nearly  iso- 
diametric  or  palisade-like  cells,  as  in  Tellicherry,  Aleppi  and 
Singapore  p'eppercorns,  to  long  tapering,  as  in  Lampong,  or  some- 
what shoe-shaped,  as  in  the  Acheen  variety.  The  parenchyma  cells 
beneath,  and  associated  with,  the  stone  cells  in  some  varieties,  as 
Tellicherry  and  Bengal,  resemble  ordinary  parenchyma  cells  while 
in  Singapore  and  Acheen  pepper  they  are  more  or  less  collapsed, 
causing  the  oleo- resin  cells  to  stand  out  rather  prominently. 
The  lumen  of  the  stone  cells  of  the  endocarp  are  quite  different 
in  different  peppers  (Fig.  j),  those  in  Bengal  and  Singapore  pepper 
having  a  reddish-brown  content,  which  is  almost  wanting  in  the 
other  varieties.  In  addition  the  walls  of  these  cells  are  variously 
thickened.  The  oil  cells  above  the  stone  cells  of  the  endocarp  are 
large  and  very  distinct  in  Aleppi,  Acheen  and  Singapore  pepper, 
but  much  less  developed  in  Lampong  pepper. 
CHEMICAL  EXAMINATION. 
The  methods  of  analysis  followed  in  obtaining  the  data  here  pre- 
sented are  those  given  by  Leach10  and  adopted  by  the  Association 
of  Official  Agricultural  Chemists.  The  principal  literature  on  the 
examination  of  black  pepper  is  found  in  the  Zeitschrift  fur  Unter- 
suchung  der  Nahrungs-  und  Genus smittel  and  The  Analyst  (London). 
The  papers  published  by  Winton  and  others  during  the  past  ten 
