CAYENNE

See also:

• PEPPER
• PEPPER, WILLIAM (1843–1898)

PEPPER (

See also:

• GUINEA

GUINEA PEPPER,

See also:

• SPANISH

SPANISH PEPPER, CHILLY)  , a preparation from the dried fruit of various species of Capsicum,a genus of the natural order Solanaceae . The true peppers are members of a totally distinct order, Piperaceae . The fruits of plants of the genus Capsicum have all a strong, pungent flavour . The capsicums bear a greenish-white flower, with a star-shaped corolla and five anthers standing up in the centre of the flower like a tube, through which projects the slender style . The pod-like fruit consists of an envelope at first fleshy and afterwards leathery, within which are the spongy pulp and several seeds . The plants are herbaceous or shrubby; the leaves are entire, and. alternate, or in pairs near one another; the flowers are solitary and do not arise in the leaf-axils . There are about thirty species, natives of Central and South America . They are now grown in various parts of the world, both for the sake of the fruit and for ornament . In England the annual sorts are sown from March to the middle of April under a frame . They can be planted out when 2 or 3 in. high, and in June may be transferred to a light rich soil in the open garden . They flower in July or August, and produce pods from August till the end of September . The perennial and shrubby kinds may be wintered in a conservatory .

Several species or varieties are used to make

cayenne pepper . The annual or common capsicum (C. annuum), the Guinea pepper plant, was brought to Europe by the Spaniards, and was grown in England in 1548 . It is indigenous to South America, but is now cultivated in India, Hungary, Italy, Spain and Turkey, with the other species of capsicum . It is a hardy herbaceous plant, which attains a height of 2 or 3 ft . There are numerous cultivated forms, differing in the shape and colour of the pod, which varies from more or less roundish to narrow-conical, with a smooth or wrinkled coat, and white, yellow, red or black in colour . The principal source of cayenne pepper is C. frutescens, the spur or goat pepper, a dwarf shrub, a native of South America, but commonly cultivated in the East Indies . It produces a small, narrow, bright red pod, having very pungent properties . C. teiragonum, or bonnet pepper, is a species much esteemed in Jamaica; it bears very fleshy fruits . Other well-known kinds of capsicum are the cherry pepper (C. cerasiforme), with small berries; bell pepper (C. grossum ), which has thick and pulpy fruit, well adapted for pickling; and berry or bird pepper (C. baccatum) . The last mentioned has been grown in England since 1731; its fruit is globular, and about the size of a cherry . The West Indian stomachic man-dram is prepared by mashing a few pods of bird pepper and mixing them with sliced cucumber and shallots, to which have been added a little lime-juice and Madeira wine . Chillies,the dried ripe or unripe fruit of capsicums, especially C. annuum and C. frutescens, are used to make chilly-vinegar, as well as for pickles .

Cayenne pepper is manufactured from the ripe fruits, which are dried, ground, mixed with

wheat flour, and made into cakes with yeast; the cakes are baked till hard like biscuit, and then ground and sifted . The pepper is sometimes prepared by simply drying the pods and pounding them fine in a mortar . Cayenne pepper is occasionally adulterated with red lead, vermilion, ochre, salt, ground-rice and turmeric . The taste of the pepper is impaired by exposure to damp and the heat of the sun . Chillies have been in use from time immemorial; they are eaten in great quantity by the people of Guiana and other warm countries, and in Europe are largely consumed both as a spice and as medicine . The dried ripe fruit of Capsicum frutescens from Zanzibar, known as pod pepper and Guinea pepper, is official in the British Pharmacopoeia under the name Capsici Fructus . The fruit has a characteristic, pungent odour and an intensely bitter taste . The chief constituents are a crystallizable resin, capsaicin, a volatile alkaloid, capsicine and a volatile oil . The dose is 1-1 grain . The British Pharmacopoeia contains two preparations of capsicum, a tincture (dose 5-15 minims) and an ointment . Externally the drug has the usual action of a volatile oil, being a very powerful counter-irritant . It does not, however, cause pustulation .

Its

internal action is also that of its class, but itsmarked contact properties make it specially useful in gastriatony and flatulence, and sometimes in hysteria .