Am.  Jour.  Pharm-") 
January,  1908.  / 
Examination  of  Black  Pepper. 
3 
Tellicherry  peppers  weigh  more  than  those  of  the  Aleppi  and 
Bengal  varieties  they  do  not  show  so  large  a  proportion  of  oleoresin 
and  piperine  cells  in  the  perisperm  ;  and  this  seems  to  be  borne  out 
by  the  chemical  data  obtained  by  Hartel  and  Will5  in  the  examina- 
nation  of  Aleppi,  Singapore  and  Tellicherry  pepper. 
MICROSCOPIC  EXAMINATION. 
A  number  of  good  monographs  on  the  structure  of  black  pepper 
have  been  published,  the  most  important  probably  being  those  by 
Winton  and  Moeller7,  and  by  Tschirch  and  Oesterle8.  It  may  be 
stated  for  the  benefit  of  the  practical  worker  that  the  illustrations 
given  by  these  authors  do  not  correspond  in  all  particulars  to  sec- 
tions of  the  commercial  article,  the  drawings  probably  having  been 
made  from  sections  of  fresh  material. 
One  of  the  first  observations  made  on  the  examination  of  cross- 
sections  of  pepper  corns  of  the  different  commercial  varieties  is  that 
the  margin  varies  markedly  in  outline,  and  it  would  appear  that  the 
different  varieties  may  in  a  measure  be  distinguished  by  this  character. 
(Fig.  I.)  In  sections  of  Aleppi  pepper  the  contour  is  undulate ;  in 
those  of  Singapore  pepper  it  is  characterized  by  broadly  conical, 
obtuse  or  acute  projections  ;  and  in  Lampong  pepper  the  projections 
are  much  longer,  somewhat  cylindrical,  more  or  less  rounded  at  the 
apex,  and  not  infrequently  somewhat  narrowed  at  the  base.  In 
sections  of  the  other  varieties  there  are  various  gradations  in  the 
contour  as  shown  in  the  figures.  While  an  extended  examination 
may  show  that  this  feature  is  merely  a  feature  of  different  lots  of 
the  same  commercial  variety,  we  have  found  that,  for  example,  in 
Lampong  pepper,  when  the  fruit  is  smooth,  the  epicarp  has  been 
removed  in  part,  the  projections  always  being  reduced  in  height 
by  the  abrasions.  This  structure  seems  to  bear  a  certain  relation 
to  the  amount  of  oil  and  resin,  that  is,  the  pepper  corns  which 
have  an  undulate  margin  in  section,  as  of  the  Aleppi  variety,  have 
the  largest  number  of  oil  and  resin  cells,  while  sections  of  the 
Lampong  fruits  have  the  most  pronounced  projections  and  contain 
more  undeveloped,  and  a  less  proportion  of,  oil  and  resin  cells. 
While  there  is  no  indication  in  the  literature  to  show  that  there 
is  a  difference  in  the  structure  of  the  pepper  corns  of  the  different 
commercial  varieties,  it  should  be  said  that  the  figures  by  Moeller,9 
