black pepper

[Peter Heytler]

In article <3jain5$o6 at kisa.seanet.com>,
Meriah Crawford <meriah at seanet.com> wrote:
>In article <nnbtD4r0nn.D2u at netcom.com>,
>Novo Nordisk Biotech <nnbt at netcom.com> wrote:
>>i have heard a rumor that black pepper is made black by processing
>>of green pepper with Glomerella cingulata. is this true?
>
>I read (somewhere) recently that black pepper is green pepper that has 
>been "aged" and has had a fungus form on it naturally. mber 
>Meriah...

  That doesn't sound right to me, though there may be some type of
condiment prepared that way.  Common black pepper comes from a totally
different plant, and two types are in far-apart plant families with 
different habitats.
  Ordinary black peppercorns are the dried small berries of a tropical
vine (Piper nigrum). Green peppers - as well as the various other 
fleshy green, red and yellow peppers - are the fruit of various species
of Capsicum, esp. C. frutescens. Red pepper seeds, of course, come from
this type of pepper fruit.  It's certainly possible that fungus-infected
pepper-fruits could yield blackened seeds, which might be used somewhere;
I don't know.

--Peter Heytler