CAYENNE pepper, Guiana pepper, Spanish pepper, Mexican chilli, as it is often called, more commonly spoken of as red pepper, is a genus of herbs or shrubs of the nightshade family (Salanaceoe) the fruit of any species of capsicum. The name capsicum is of uncertain origin, perhaps from kato, to bite—all of them having a strong, pungent flavor, or from L. capso, box or chest, from the shape of the fruit; the latter name being given to it by Broconna.

The true peppers are members of a totally distinct order, the Piperaceoe.

French, Piment or Corail des Jardins Poivra d’Inde or Guinee; German, Spanisher Oderkerscher Pfeffer.

Cayenne takes its name from the city of Cayenne (Koyen or Kien) (see illustration), or from the island and river, both of same name, on which it is located, or from the province of Cayenne in French Guiana, South America. The city of Cayenne is a French penal station, and exports large quantities of Cayenne, which we call Guiana pepper.

Probably the first known history of Cayenne pepper in Europe is that given by Martyr, who writes of Columbus bringing it home with him in 1493, and speaks of it as being more pungent than that from Caucasus, probably referring to the Oriental black pepper. About a century later, Gerarde writes of its being brought into Europe from Africa and Southern Asia and being grown in European gardens. Probably the first record of its use is that given by Doctor Chauca, who was physician with Columbus’s fleet in 1494, and who alludes to it as a condiment used in dressing meats, dyeing, and other purposes, as well as a medicine.

Cayenne pepper is supposed to have first been brought to America by the Portuguese, who found it growing in a wild state. Our greater supply now comes from Zanzibar, Nepaul, Bombay, and Penang. Almost every gardener knows the red pepper plant. The plants are generally started in a nursery or hot-house in early spring, from the seed, and are transplanted when a few inches high, as soon as the weather will permit, in the prepared garden, about four feet apart. When about six inches high, a little rich fertilizer should be worked in the soil about the plants. The Cayenne pepper plant is an annual and is a slow grower, and it seldom rises higher than four feet. It has a rough stem, nearly globulous, with branches diffused and often scandent; the leaves are lancelate, quite entire and repand, small, smooth, petioled, alternate in pairs or near each other, greenish-white flowers, seldom violaceous; solitary or in twos and threes with rotate five, rarely six or seven, cleft corolla; stamens, five, and rarely six or seven, with five bluish anthers (connivent and dehising longitudinally) and an obtuse stigma, calyx usually embracing base of ovary, which soon becomes a pod, consisting of a fleshy envelope at first and afterwards a leathery, oblong, linear, juiceless pod or fruit, in which are the spongy pulp and seeds. These fruit pods are of several varieties, varying in shape and color, and being long or short, podded and oval, round or heart-shaped. The pods are bright red or yellow, divided into two or three cells full of small white seeds, known as pod pepper. The pods which are of a green color, when full grown, commence to change first to a lovely canary yellow and then to a rose pink, and so on through the different shades until they are intense scarlet when ready for harvesting in August and September (see illustration).

Don gives a list of thirty-three varieties in his General System of Gardening and Botany, which are used to make Cayenne pepper, but there are ninety different species of capsicum known, and ranging in height from a small plant of six inches to ornamental plants six feet in height, and of many varieties or species of capsicum too contribute to that found in commerce.

The C. frutescens of the Fastigiatum (perennial) sometimes reaches to a height of several feet with branching and spreading tops, sometimes decumbent, leaves broadly ovate, fruit of various shapes and colors, usually small and very pungent, borne on long peduncles and is the species which is officinal in both the British and United States Pharmacopoeias. It grows in tropical Africa and America and is called Zanzibar pepper, and often by the name of Mexican chillies, and is of a high grade of Cayenne (Fig. 1). Its pods are very small, being from one-half to three-fourths inch long and very bright red, containing white seeds, the skin of the pods being tender and very pungent. The color of its powder is lighter yellow than C. annum, has a fibrous root system. Potato and tomato belonging to the same family, it is found growing in the United States and Europe and has been growing in English gardens since 1548 and, although indigenous to South America, is now cultivated in India, Hungary, Italy, and Turkey.

Nepaul capsicum (or Nepal and Nipal), as it is sometimes called, has an odor and flavor resembling orris and a pod the color of amber when dried. It is most esteemed as a condiment, being aromatic and appetizing, and not so acrid or biting as is most Cayenne. It is found cultivated on the mountain side in Hindoostan.

Cayenne of the African variety comes from Sierra Leone in the east and from Natal, southeast of Cape Colony, including Zululand and Tangaland, or from a territory that has a coast line of 300 miles. It grows to a height of five or six feet producing long, kidney-shaped, orange-colored pods. It is shipped from the port of Natal. It is considered the best for fluid extract. That from Sierra Leone (Fig. 3) has pods that are small, conical-pointed, and less than one inch in length. It is very pungent, and when reduced to powder is a light brownish yellow with a peculiar odor and somewhat aromatic. It is stronger in the powder than in the dry fruit, and to the taste is bitterish, acrid, and burning, producing, a fiery sensation in the mouth, which continues for a long time. There is a new Cayenne on the market of recent date, called Mombassa, from the city of the same name in Africa.

Bombay Cayenne (Fig. 2) has large pods, from two to three inches long, which when dry become flat in shape and of a pale-red color. It is not so fine flavored or pungent as the Zanzibar and is of less value.

The true Mexican chillies are grown mostly in Frantera de Tabasco, Mexico, the name being much used for Cayenne chillies from other countries, as has been mentioned.

The smaller varieties (C. baccatum) have been known in the English gardens since 1731; plants, small and very erect, and slender branches, fastigiate, flexous; corolla, small, spreading about one-half an inch, and has a globular fruit called cherry or berry capsicum, and are usually known as the “chillies” or “bird pepper.” They are not more than one-half to three-quarters of an inch while the C. annuum is two to three inches long.

C. fastigiatum (minimum) which is usually termed the shrubbery capsicum and by Rheede is called capo-malago, is found growing wild in South India and is extensively cultivated in tropical Africa and America. It is three to six feet high with prominently angled or somewhat channeled stem and loosely spreading or trailing branches; leaves broadly ovate and acuminate, three to six inches long and two to three and one-half inches wide; peduncles, slender and one to two inches long in pairs, usually longer than the fruit; calyx, cup-shaped, embracing base of fruit; corolla, often with acherous markings in the throat; fruit, red, obtuse or oblong, acuminate, three-fourths to one and one-fourth inches long, and one-fourth to three-fourths of an inch in diameter, and very acrid.

C. annuum (Longum crossum), bell-shaped, of Algeria, which are often spoken of as herbaceous, and by Rheede as vallia capo-malago, the difference being chiefly in the nature of the stem.

It is two feet high with few branches and very large leaves, often three to five inches long, and sometimes caricous, lower ones usually pendant petioles, deeply channeled; peduncles, about one inch long; corolla, large and spreading seven-eighths to one and one-fourth inches; fruit, large, oblate, oblong or truncated, three to four-lobed, usually with basal depressions, more or less sulcate and rugose; flesh, thick, firm and mild flavor.

The Minimum in Hindoostan is named “Dhan Nurich.” The C. grossum bears fruit as large as a small apple and is called by the English in India coffrie chillie. It is preferred for pickling, the seed being first removed. The skin is fleshy and tender.

C. fasciculatum has few branches and clustered leaves or crowded in branches about the summit, elliptical, lanceolate, pointed at both ends; fruit clustered erect, slender, about three inches long, one-fourth inch in diameter, very acrid and is the red cluster pepper.

Acuminatum (C. chilense), herbaceous, very branchy, about two and one-half feet high, becoming a dense mass of foliage; flowers, medium size, spreading one-half to three-fourths inch; fruit, larger than C. fasciculatum.

C. cerasiforme has leaves medium ovate, oblong, acuminate, about one and one-fourth to three and one-half inches long; calyx seated on base of fruit; corolla, large and spreading seven-eighths to one and one-half inches; fruit, one-half to one-eighth inch thick, spherical, subcordate, oblate or occasionally obscurely pointed, or slightly elongated, smooth, or, rarely, minutely rugose or sulcate; extremely pungent, and cherry yellow.

Tetragomum, or bonnet pepper, is a species much esteemed in Guiana, which bears very large, handsome, fleshy fruit, two colors, scarlet and golden yellow; and C. frutescens (spur or goat pepper) has been growing in the English gardens since 1856, is said to yield most of the Cayenne pepper which comes from the West Indies and South America; largely used in salads.

A kind called tobacco pepper is said to possess the most pungent properties of any of the species. It yields a small red pod generally less than an inch in length, and is longitudinal in shape, mostly borne above the leaves, and is so exceedingly hot that a small quantity of it is sufficient to season a large dish of any food.

Owing to its oleaginous character it has been found impossible to preserve it by drying, but by pouring strong boiling vinegar on it a sauce or decoction can be made which will possess in a concentrated form all the essential qualities of the vegetable, a single drop being enough to flavor a whole plate of soup or food.

The chilli plant is the Lat-tsiao of Cochin Chinese. It is constantly found in its wild state in the eastern islands. These varieties are enumerated by botanists; their fruits differ in degrees of pungency. All capsicum is a low grade of Cayenne. It requires but the simplest culture, and cultivation appears to increase the size of the fruit, but it diminishes its pungency.

Several varieties of C. annuum have little or no pungency. One of these is abundantly grown in Austria-Hungary, from which we obtain Paprika of the Magyars. Another kind is imported into this country from Spain in a powder for feeding birds to improve the colors of their feathers and to make them sing.

There are growing in the botanical gardens of Calcutta six species of capsicum, viz, annuum, grossum, frutescens, baccatum, purpureum, and minimum. The grossum in Hindoostan is called “Kaffrie Murich” and of the frutescens there are two varieties, the red and the yellow, called by the Bengalese “lall-lunka,” “Murich” and “huldi-lunka” Murich. The Cyngalese name for frutescens is Casnairis. There is said to be a black pod as well as a red and yellow known on the Island of Ceylon.

The consumption of chillies in India is immense, as they are used by both rich and poor and constitute the principal seasoning for the poor in their rice. The natives of the West Indies, Africa, and Mexico use them very extensively.

West India stomachic man-drum is prepared by washing a few pods of bird’s pepper and mixing them with sliced cucumber and shallots, to which add a little lime juice or Madeira wine.

A great quantity of agri or Guiana pepper is grown in Peru, a variety which the natives are very fond of as a condiment. It is not uncommon for an American Indian to make a meal of twenty to thirty pods of capsicum and a little salt and a piece of bread washed down with chica, their popular beverage.

The wort, or Cayenne pottage, may be termed the national dish of the Abyssinians, as that, or its basis, “dillock,” is almost always eaten with their ordinary diet. Equal parts of salt and well-powdered red Cayenne pod are mixed together with a little pea or bean meal to make a paste which is called dillock. This mixture is made in quantities at a time, being preserved in a large gourd shell, generally suspended from the roof. The wort is merely a little water added to the paste, which is boiled over the fire with the addition of a little fat meat. More meal is added to make a kind of porridge, to which sometimes are also added several warm seeds, such as the common cress or black mustard. Sometimes the larger peppers are harvested when full grown, while yet green in color, to be used for mangoes by removing the seeds and stuffing with chow-chow pickles. Cayenne may be considered one of the most useful vegetables in hygiene as a stimulant and auxiliary in digestion and has been considered invaluable in warm climates. It is used medicinally for various ailments in form of tinctures, as a rubefacient and stimulant, especially in case of ulcerated sore throat and also dropsy, colic, and toothache; when mixed with honey and applied externally is a good remedy for quinsy. It is also used for tropical fevers, for gout and paralysis. It acts on the stomach as an aromatic condiment and when preserved in acetic acid it forms chilli vinegar. When the seed of the chillies or capsicum is fresh it has a penetrating, acrid smell, and this irritant property which prevails obscures the narcotic action. Its acridity is owing to an oleaginous substance called capsicine, and this extremely pungent principle produces a most painful burning in the mouth. Capsicum or chillies is generally imported in bales of 130 pounds each and occasionally is bottled in vinegar when green or ripe. In the large factories a special mill is usually reserved for powdering Cayenne exclusively, instead of burr-stone mills with the ordinary shaking sifter. A high-speed iron plate mill is often used, and in connection with this a large revolving reel is required for sifting the spice as it is ground. The coarse part or tailings are returned to the mill automatically by means of a suitable, connected-bucket elevator. A special grinding outfit of this kind can be arranged so that it does not require much attention from the workman, a device which is very essential, as the fine powder works into the skin and great care must be used in handling the goods. Small grinders prefer to buy it powdered from the large factories. Sometimes the powdered Cayenne pepper is adulterated by mixing with wheat flour and made into cakes with yeast and baked hard like biscuit, then they are ground and sifted.

The pericarp consists of two layers, the outer being composed of yellow, thick-walled cells; the inner layer is twice as broad and exhibits a soft, shrunken parenchyma, traversed by their fibro-vascular bundles. The cells of the outer layer are especially the seat of the fine granules of coloring matter, which contain a fat or oily substance, as may be found if they are removed by alcoholic solution of potash.

The structural details of this fruit afford interesting subjects for microscopical investigation. The peculiarities described are so distinctive that the presence of foreign matter is easily detected. The cells of the pericarp or epidermis are of a peculiar flattened and chain-like angular form, which are characteristic of Cayenne. The other structures are not as prominent, but are not liable to be confounded with those of any adulterants. Diagrammatic representatives of this structure are given in Fig. 45, Chap. III, and the appearance of the pure ground Cayenne under polarized light in Fig. 44.

The portions of the seed in the powder are not readily distinguished without careful examination. They are, however, characteristic and contain starch, the form of which is shown in Fig. 20, Chap. III. The adulterants used are mineral coloring matter to hide the loss of color, which takes place on exposure of Cayenne to light, and for added weight ground rice, tumeric, husk of mustard, etc. Rice and corn flour adulterations are shown in Fig. 45, which cannot be confused with the few starch grains found in the lower layer of the pericarp or in the seed. The tumeric and mustard are recognized by their peculiar structure.

The chemical composition of capsicum is (1) a fixed oil without sharp smell or taste and which is almost entirely in the seed; (2) a camphor-like substance which tastes and smells sharp, and which contains the peculiar principle of Cayenne (capsicine); this principle is found both in the pod and in the seeds, but in greater quantity in the pod; (3) a resinous body, the red coloring matter (capsicum red), which is found only in the pod.

In the detection of the adulterations of Cayenne by chemical methods, determination of water and ash, ether extracts and albuminoids are of value, and as a rule when combined with a microscopic examination will reveal the means and amounts of adulterations without difficulty.

Chemical composition of Capsicum annum, water at 100 degrees: