Long pepper (Piper longum), sometimes called Javanese, Indian or Indonesian Long Pepper, is a flowering vine in the family Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit, which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning. Long pepper is a close relative of Piper nigrum giving black, green and white pepper, and has a similar, though generally hotter, taste. The word pepper itself is derived from the Sanskrit word for long pepper, pippali. The Aryans were the first exporters of both kinds of pepper from the tropical forests of South Asia. It is however, not commonly used as a spice. However, in certain locations in Bengal and North Eastern India it is added to food items for the purpose of adding flavor The fruit of the pepper consists of many minuscule fruits - each about the size of a poppy seed - embedded in the surface of a flower spike that closely resembles a hazel tree catkin. The fruits contain the alkaloid piperine, which contributes to their pungency. Another species of long pepper, Piper retrofractum, is native to Java, Indonesia. Inflorescence axis has branches and a number of fruits appear around it shaped like pipul. Root has pungent taste. The tiny berries, which merge to a single, rod-like structure which bears some resemblance catkins (flowers of trees like hazelnut or willow). The content of Piperine (about 6%) is slightly higher than in black pepper. On the other hand, long pepper contains less essential oil than its relatives (about 1%), which consists of sesquiterpene hydrocarbons and ethers (bisabolene, ß-caryophyllene, ß-caryophyllene oxide, each 10 to 20%; a-zingiberene, 5%), and, surprisingly, saturated aliphatic hydrocarbons: 18% pentadecane, 7% tridecane, 6% heptadecane. The creeper was known as medicinal herb even during Vedic era. In Atharva Veda it is said it has capacity to control, to digest and represents power. That is why in every Yagna its juice is used.
