SC - What is Grains of Paradise

grizly at mindspring.com grizly at mindspring.com
Fri Mar 10 21:30:00 PST 2000


Grains of Paradise (Aframomum
melegueta [Roskoe] K. Schum.)

Synonyms
      bot             Amomum melegueta, Amomum grana paradisi 
      pharm           Grana paradisi 
      Amharic         Kewrerima 
      Dutch           Paradijskorrels 
      English         Guinea grains, Melegueta pepper 
      Estonian        Melegeti aframon 
      French          Graines de paradis, Malaguette, Poivre de Guinée, Maniguette 
      German          Paradieskörner, Guineapfeffer, Meleguetapfeffer, Malagettapfeffer 
      Italian         Grani de Meleguetta, Grani paradisi, Mani guetta 
      Russian         Rajskiye zyorna, Malagvet 
      Spanish         Malagueta 


Used plant part
     Seed. The seeds have approximately the size and the shape of cardamom seeds (3mm), but are reddish-brown in colour. In powdered form, they become pale grey. A good photo of the seeds is shown by Norman. 

Plant family
     Zingiberaceae (ginger family). 

Sensoric quality
     Spicy, hot and warm, a little bitter. 

Main constituents
     In the acetone extract of Ghanese grains or paradise, the following hydroxyphenylalkanones were found: 1-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl)-decan-3-one (called (6)-paradole), 1-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl)-3-hendecan-3-one (called (7)-paradole) and 1-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl)-3-hendeca-4-ene-3-one (called (6)-shoagole) in approximately equal parts. (Phytochemistry, 14, 853, 1975).
     Other work reports (6)-paradole and (6)-gingerole (5-hydroxy-(6)-paradole). 


Pepper (Piper nigrum L.)

General synonyms
      Amharic             K'undo berbere 
      Arabic              Filfil 
      Assami              Jaluk 
      Bengali             Golmarich, Kalomarich 
      Burmese             Nayukon, Nga-youk-kuan 
      Chinese             Hu-chiao, Woo jiu, Hu jiao li 
      Danish              Peber 
      Dutch               Peper 
      Esperanto           Pipro 
      Estonian            Pipar 
      Farsi               Philphili, Abeeyad 
      Finnish             Pippuri 
      French              Poivre 
      Frisian             Piper 
      German              Pfeffer 
      Greek               Pipéri 
      Gujrati             Kalomirich 
      Hebrew              Pilpel 
      Hindi               Gol mirch, Gulki, Kali mirch 
      Hungarian           Borsó 
      Icelandic           Pipar 
      Indonesian          Merica 
      Italian             Pepe 
      Japanese            Kosho 
      Kannada             Menasu 
      Laotian             Phi noi 
      Malay               Lada 
      Malayalam           Kuru-mulagu 
      Marathi             Kali miri 
      Norwegian           Pepper 
      Oriya               Gola maricha 
      Portuguese          Pimenta 
      Punjabi             Kali marich 
      Romanian            Piper 
      Russian             Pjerets 
      Russian             Zelyony pjerets 
      Sanskrit            Marichan, Vella, Krishnan, Krishnadi 
      Singhalese          Gammiris, Miris 
      Spanish             Pimienta 
      Swahili             Pilipili 
      Swedish             Peppar 
      Tamil               Milagoo 
      Telugu              Savyamu, Miriyalu 
      Thai                Prik thai 
      Turkish             Biber 
      Vietnamese          Hat-trieu, Trieu 


Special synonyms for Black pepper
      pharm              Fructus Piperis nigri 
      Arabic             Filfil aswad 
      Dutch              Zwarte peper 
      Estonian           Must pipar 
      Finnish            Mustapippuri 
      French             Poivre noir 
      German             Schwarzer Pfeffer 
      Hebrew             Pilpel shahhor 
      Hindi              Kali mirch 
      Icelandic          Swartur pipar 
      Indonesian         Merica hitam 
      Italian            Pepe nero 
      Malay              Lada hitam 
      Portuguese         Pimenta preta, Pimenta-do-reino 
      Russian            Chyorny pjerets 
      Spanish            Pimienta negro 
      Swedish            Svartpeppar 


Special synonyms for White Pepper
      pharm              Fructus Piperis albi 
      Danish             Hvid peber 
      Dutch              Witte peper 
      Finnish            Valkopippuri 
      French             Poivre blanc 
      German             Weißer Pfeffer 
      Hebrew             Pilpel lavan 
      Icelandic          Hvítur pipar 
      Indonesian         Merica putih 
      Italian            Pepe bianco 
      Malay              Lada putih 
      Norwegian          Hvitpepper 
      Portuguese         Pimenta branca 
      Russian            Byely pjerets 
      Spanish            Pimienta blanca 
      Swedish            Vitpeppar 


Used plant part
     Dried fruits. 

Plant family
     Piperaceae (pepper family). 

Sensoric quality
     Pungent and aromatic. The pungency is strongest in white pepper and weakest in green pepper, while black and green pepper are more aromatic than the white one. 

Main constituents
     Black pepper contains about 3% essential oil, whose aroma is dominated (max. 80%)by monoterpenes: sabinene and alpha-pinene, furthermore terpenes, beta-pinene, myrcene, limonene, delta-3-carene and monoterpene derivatives (borneol, carvone, carvacrol, 1,8-cineol, linalool). Sesquiterpenes make up about 20% of the essential oil:
beta-caryophyllene, humulene, beta-bisabolone and caryophyllene oxide and ketone.
     Phenylether (eugenol, myristicine, safrol) are found in traces. Loss of monoterpenes due to bad storage conditions (especially for ground pepper) should be avoided. 

     The pungent principle in pepper is an alkaloid-analog compound, piperine; it is the amide of 4-dioxymethylene-phenyl)-hexa-2,4-dienoic acid (piperinic acid) with azinane (piperidine); only the trans,trans conformation contributes to pepper's pungency. Several piperidine-analogous compounds have been isolated from black pepper where the acid carbon backbone is partially hydrogenated (piperanine) or two carbon atoms longer (piperettine); amides of piperinic acid with pyrrolidine (piperyline) or isobutylamine (piperlongumine) have also been isolated. Total content of piperidine-analogs in black pepper is about 5%. 


I copied this infomration from Gernot Katzer's webpage.  He lists lots of sources there, and I cannot speak to the historical accuracy he lists for the spices nor the technical.  According to his information, the compopunds seem radically different.  You can go to his page for more information on these and other spices.


niccolo difrancesco

sca-cooks at ansteorra.org wrote:
> <<<SNIP>>>

Pepper trees are native to monsoon forests in India, and the flowers are
replaced with strings of pepper berries.  

Still don't know the chemical make-up.

Regards,
Allison,     allilyn at juno.com


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