Researchers have spicy news on black pepper

Coveted for its flavour since ancient times and one of the most commonly used spices across the world, black pepper originated in the Western Ghats more than six million years ago, Bengaluru scientists have reported.

Researchers for the first time have provided molecular evidence that black pepper (Piper nigrum) originated in the Western Ghats during the late Miocene era or 6.3 million years ago.

The finding is of particular importance because this species is widely cultivated throughout South Asia and South America, and has had several speculations about its geographical areas of origin.

The plant genus Piper to which black pepper belongs evolved nearly 110 million years ago but came to India between 15-27 million years ago from South Asia.

“There were five dispersal events of Piper genus from South Asia in those 12 million years, probably from Malaysia and Indonesia. Also, there were two back dispersals from India to South Asia. But black pepper originated in the wet, evergreen forests of the Western Ghats,” Gudasalamani Ravikanth from Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment in Bengaluru and lead investigator of the study told DH.

The ATREE researchers collaborated with scientists at Concordia University in Montreal and Jawaharlal Nehru Tropical Botanical Garden and Research Institute in Thiruvananthapuram to find out the origin and family history of the spice using sophisticated genetic tools.

The starting point was 21 species of Piper found in south India, out of which three are of economic value. The samples were collected from the Western Ghats, Eastern Ghats, North East India and Andaman and Nicobar islands.

Besides finding out the origin of black pepper, the study also established the Piper species’ ancient links with the extinct super-continent Gondwanaland that broke into two distinct landmasses — India and Africa — that drifted away from Madagascar by late Cretaceous period or 99-66 million years ago.

There are several other species in southern India, including a particular type of Western Ghat frog, that are Gondwanan relict.

In their study, published in the journal Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, Ravikanth and his colleagues also provided evidence of overland dispersal of Piper species to Africa from South Asia 12-14 mn years ago.