PIPER NIGRUM

PIPER NIGRUM.—胡椒 (Hu-chiao). This is said to have originally been brought from Magadha, where it was called 昧履支 (Wei-fu-chih), possibly the transliteration of an Indian name. It is now imported from the islands of the East Indian archipelago. Black and white pepper are both used as a condiment by the Chinese, but not so exclusively as in the west. Capsicum and Zanthoxylum are so plentiful and cheap that they are used rather than the more expensive pepper. It is said that some attempts have been made, though rather unsuccessfully, to domesticate the pepper vine, which grows indigenous on the island of Hainan. Prior to the coming of Europeans, the ground pepper was apparently not known in China; the pepper-corns being either used whole, or crushed as required. Carminative, warming, and eliminative properties are ascribed to the drug, and it is administered in cholera, dysentery, vomiting, summer diarrhœa, and dysuria. It is said to correct fish, flesh, shell-fish, and mushroom poisoning.