Black Pepper Essential Oil is steam distilled from the dried, crushed, unripe fruit of Piper nigrum, a perennial flowering vine in the Piperaceae family. The oil is thin and clear to yellow, with a dry, warm and spicy aroma.
The plant
Black Pepper is native to Indonesia and areas of southern India and is now grown commercially in China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Madagascar, Malaysia and Brazil. The plants thrive in moist, well-draining soil rich in organic matter, and in the wild the vines climb rough-barked trees. The woody vines reach around fifteen feet, and the roots spread wherever the stems touch the ground. The leaves are dark green and almond shaped, two to three inches long with prominent veins, and grow alternately along the vine.
The small yellow-green to pale yellow flowers grow in clusters of about fifty on spikes that sprout near the leaf nodes. The spikes start at one to three inches and lengthen to three to six inches as the fruit matures. The fruits are small round drupes around one centimeter across, each holding a single seed. They turn from bright green to red as they ripen. Only the dried unripe fruits are black pepper. White pepper is made from the dried ripe fruits. Cultivated plants bear fruit reliably at four or five years old and continue for around seven years.
History
The name comes from the Latin piper and Old English pipor, as well as the Sanskrit pippali, meaning long pepper. In Ancient Greece, owning Black Pepper became a symbol of power and wealth, and the spice was used as currency and for political and social leverage. The Ancient Romans used single peppercorns to pay dowries, rent and taxes. In Europe during the Middle Ages pepper was used to help preserve meats and to cover odors, and it was an important good in the spice trade for centuries. Cities such as Florence and Venice relied heavily on the pepper trade.
Wild Black Pepper grows in the Western Ghats region of India, where the forests held expansive wild vines into the nineteenth century. The Scottish physician and botanist Francis Buchanan recorded this in A journey from Madras through the countries of Mysore, Canara, and Malabar (Volume III). Deforestation has since reduced the wild population to limited patches from Goa to Kerala, and there is very little wildcrafted oil on the market. Grafting cultivated plants onto wild plants has been attempted, with no success to date.
How Black Pepper oil is made
Fruits for essential oil must be harvested while still green and unripe. Harvest usually begins when one or two fruits at the base of the spike start to turn red, a sign that the fruits are fully mature but not yet ripe. The spikes are collected whole. The fruits are sometimes briefly boiled, which ruptures the cell walls and helps them dry more quickly, then dried by machine or in the sun for several days. The skin shrinks, wrinkles around the seed and darkens to black. The dried peppercorns are crushed before distillation to maximize extraction.
Black Pepper in perfumery
In perfumery Black Pepper Essential Oil acts as a middle note that blends well with citrus, spices and many other essential oils. It is used to add warmth and depth to a fragrance and to marry lighter top notes with heavy base notes.
Recipes with Black Pepper Essential Oil
Black Pepper, Lavender and Vetiver Diffuser Blend
- 4 parts Black Pepper Essential Oil
- 4 parts Lavender Essential Oil
- 2 parts Vetiver Essential Oil
Add water to your diffuser up to the fill line, then add the blend. The recipe is sized for a 200 mL ultrasonic diffuser, where it comes to about 0.5 mL of essential oil in total. Adjust the amount to the size and directions of your diffuser.
Black Pepper, Rosemary and Frankincense Room Spray
- 4 oz Amber Glass Bottle with Spray Top
- 2 oz of High Percentage Alcohol
- 2 oz of Distilled Water
- 0.5 mL of Black Pepper Essential Oil
- 0.5 mL of Rosemary Essential Oil
- 0.25 mL of Frankincense Essential Oil
Add the alcohol to the bottle. Add the essential oils and fill the remainder of the bottle with water, leaving a little space at the top. Shake well before each use. Spray around the room.
Find Black Pepper Essential Oil in our essential oils collection.
