2.3 Green pepper 2.4 Orange pepper and red pepper 2.5 Pink pepper and other plants used as pepper 2.6 Region of origin 3 Plant

ultivated there and elsewhere in tropical regions. Currently Vietnam is the world's largest producer and exporter of pepper, producing 34% of the world's Piper nigrum crop as of 2008.
Dried ground pepper has been used since antiquity for both its flavor and as a medicine. Black pepper is the world's most traded spice. It is one of the most common spices added to European cuisine and its descendants. The spiciness of black pepper is due to the chemical piperine, not to be confused with the capsaicin that gives fleshy peppers theirs. It is ubiquitous in the modern world as a seasoning, and is often paired with salt.
Contents  [hide]
1 Etymology
2 Varieties
2.1 Black pepper
2.2 White pepper
2.3 Green pepper
2.4 Orange pepper and red pepper
2.5 Pink pepper and other plants used as pepper
2.6 Region of origin
3 Plant
4 History
4.1 Ancient times
4.2 Postclassical Europe
4.3 China
4.4 As medicine
5 Flavor
6 World trade
7 See also
8 Notes and references
9 Bibliography
10 Further reading
11 External links
Etymology[edit]

The word "pepper" has its roots in the Dravidian word for long pepper, pippali.[2][3][4] Ancient Greek and Latin turned pippali into the Latin piper, which was used by the Romans to refer both to black pepper and long pepper, as the Romans erroneously believed that both of these spices were derived from the same plant.[5] Today's "pepper" derives from the Old English pipor. The Latin word is also the source of Romanian piper, Italian pepe, Dutch peper, German Pfeffer, French poivre, and other similar forms.
In the 16th century, pepper started referring to the unrelated New World chili pepper as well. "Pepper" was used in a figurative sense to mean "spirit" or "energy" at l