Piperaceae

Life-forms

Classification System: APG IV

Superregnum: Eukaryota
Regnum: Plantae
Cladus: Angiosperms
Cladus: Magnoliids
Ordo: Piperales

Familia: Piperaceae
Subfamilia: Piperoideae – Verhuellioideae – Zippelioideae

Genera: Manekia – Peperomia – Piper – Verhuellia – Zippelia

Name

Piperaceae Giseke Prae. Ord. Nat. Pl. 123 (1792) nom. cons.

Typus: Piper L. Sp. Pl. 28–30. (1753)
References

Giseke, P.D. 1792. Praelectiones in ordines naturales plantarum 123.
Stevens, P.F. 2001 onwards. Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. Version 14, July 2017 [and more or less continuously updated since]. Online. Reference page.
Samain, M.-S., Mathieu, G., Wanke, S., Neinhuis, C. & Goetghebeur, P. 2008. Verhuellia revisited - unravelling its intricate taxonomic history and a new subfamilial classification of Piperaceae. Taxon 57: 585–587. Full text (PDF). Reference page.
Samain, M.-S., Vanderschaeve, L., Chaerle, P., Goetghebeur, P., Neinhuis, C. & Wanke, S. 2009. Is morphology telling the truth about the evolution of the species rich genus Peperomia (Piperaceae)? Plant Systematics and Evolution 278(1): 1–21. DOI: 10.1007/s00606-008-0113-0 PDF. [Erratum: Plant Syst. Evol. 280(3–4): 251–254. 2009. DOI: 10.1007/s00606-009-0186-4]Reference page.
Samain, M.-S., Vrijdaghs, A., Hesse, M., Goetghebeur, P., Rodríguez, F.J., Stoll, A., Neinhuis, C. & Wanke, S. 2010. Verhuellia is a segregate lineage in Piperaceae: More evidence from flower, fruit and pollen morphology, anatomy, and development. Annals of Botany 105(1): 677–688. DOI: 10.1093/aob/mcq031 PDF. Reference page.

Vernacular names
العربية: فلفلية
azərbaycanca: İstiotkimilər
català: Piperàcies
čeština: Pepřovníkovité
dansk: Peber-familien
Deutsch: Pfeffergewächse
Ελληνικά: Πιπερίδες
English: Pepper family
Esperanto: Piprujacoj
eesti: Pipralised
فارسی: فلفل‌سیاهیان
suomi: Pippurikasvit
Nordfriisk: Pöberplaanten
עברית: פלפליים
hrvatski: Paparovke
hornjoserbsce: Popjerjowcowe rostliny
magyar: Borsfélék
italiano: Piperacee
ქართული: პილპილისებრნი
한국어: 후추과
kurdî: Famîleya bîberên reş
lietuvių: Pipiriniai
македонски: Пипери
മലയാളം: പിപ്പരേസീ
norsk nynorsk: Peparfamilien
norsk: Pepperfamilien
polski: Pieprzowate
русский: Перечные
Sunda: Cabé jawa
svenska: Pepparväxter
తెలుగు: పైపరేసి
ไทย: วงศ์พริกไทย
Türkçe: Karabibergiller
українська: Перцеві
Tiếng Việt: Họ Hồ tiêu
West-Vlams: Peperfamilie
中文: 胡椒科

The Piperaceae /pɪpəˈreɪʃiː/, also known as the pepper family, are a large family of flowering plants. The group contains roughly 3,600 currently accepted species in 5 genera. The vast majority of species can be found within the two main genera: Piper (2,171 species) and Peperomia (1,373 species).[2]

Members of the Piperaceae may be small trees, shrubs, or herbs. The distribution of this group is best described as pantropical.

The best-known species, Piper nigrum, yields most peppercorns that are used as spices, including black pepper, although its relatives in the family include many other spices.[3]

Etymology

The name Piperaceae is likely to be derived from the Sanskrit term pippali, Sanskrit: पिप्पली, which was used to describe long peppers (like those of Piper longum).
varigated peperomia
Taxonomy

The APG III system of 2009 recognizes this family, and assigns it to the order Piperales in the unranked clade magnoliids.[1] The family consists of five genera: Piper, Peperomia, Zippelia, Manekia, and Verhuellia. The previously recognised Pacific genus Macropiper, was recently merged into Piper.[4] A tentative cladogram showing relationships based on Wanke et al. (2007)[5] is shown below. This phylogeny was based on 6,000 base pairs of chloroplast DNA. Only recently has it become clear that Verhuellia is sister to the other four genera in the family.[6]
Piperaceae
Verhuellioideae

Verhuellia Miquel 1843 (three species)
 
 
Zippelioideae
 

Zippelia Blume 1830 (one species)
 
 

Manekia Trelease 1927 (six species)
 
 
Piperoideae
 

Piper Linnaeus 1753 (about 2000 species)
 
 

Peperomia Ruiz & Pavon 1794 (about 1600 species)
 
 
 
 
Characteristics

Members of pepper family are small trees, shrubs, or perennial or annual herbs.
Roots and stems

Plants are often rhizomatous, and can be terrestrial or epiphytic. The stems can be either simple or branched.
Leaves

Leaves are simple with entire margins, and are positioned at the base of the plant or along the stem, and can be alternate, opposite, or whorled in arrangement. Stipules are usually present, as are petioles. The leaves are often noticeably aromatic when crushed.
Flowers

Inflorescences (in the form of spikes) are terminal, opposite the leaves, or located in the axils. Flowers are bisexual, with no perianth, each flower is subtended by a peltate bract. Stamens are 2–6, and hypogynous, with 2-locular anthers. There are usually 3-4 stigmas attached to a single pistil per flower, which is 1 or 3-4 carpellate. The ovary is 1 locular, and superior.
Fruits and seeds

Fruits are drupelike, with a single seed per fruit. The seeds have a minute embryo, and mealy perisperm.[7]
Traditional Medicinal Uses

Numerous members of the Piperaceae family are used in the traditional medicinal systems of indigenous population for a wide variety of illnesses. Many studies have been undertaken to investigate these uses, with a large number of them focusing especially on the active ingredient Piperine and related compounds found in many members of this family, especially Black pepper, Long pepper and Betel.[8][9]
References

Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (2009). "An update of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group classification for the orders and families of flowering plants: APG III" (PDF). Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society. 161 (2): 105–121. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8339.2009.00996.x. Retrieved 2013-07-06.
Stevens, P. F. (2001 onwards). Angiosperm Phylogeny Website Version 9, June 2008 http://www.mobot.org/mobot/research/apweb/welcome.html
Ravindran PN. 2000 Black Pepper, Piper nigrum. Harwood Acadiic, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. 553 p.
Wanke, S., Jaramillo, M. A., Borsch, T., Samain, M.-T., Quandt, D., and Neinhuis, C. (2007) "Evolution of Piperales—matK gene and trnK intron sequence data reveal lineage specific resolution contrast". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 42: 477–497.
Wanke, S., Vanderschaeve, L., Mathieu, G., Neinhuis, C., Goetghebeur, P., and Samain, M.S. (2007) "From Forgotten Taxon to a Missing Link? The Position of the Genus Verhuellia (Piperaceae) Revealed by Molecules". Annals of Botany, 99: 1231–1238.
Samain et al. (2010) "Verhuellia is a segregate lineage in Piperaceae: more evidence from flower, fruit and pollen morphology, anatomy and development". Annals of Botany, 105.
Boufford, D.E. (1997)). Flora of North America - Piperaceae. http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=10692l
Salehi, Bahare; Zakaria, Zainul Amiruddin; Gyawali, Rabin; Ibrahim, Salam A.; Rajkovic, Jovana; Shinwari, Zabta Khan; Khan, Tariq; Sharifi-Rad, Javad; Ozleyen, Adem; Turkdonmez, Elif; Valussi, Marco (2019-04-07). "Piper Species: A Comprehensive Review on Their Phytochemistry, Biological Activities and Applications". Molecules. 24 (7): 1364. doi:10.3390/molecules24071364. ISSN 1420-3049. PMC 6479398. PMID 30959974.
Derosa, Giuseppe; Maffioli, Pamela; Sahebkar, Amirhossein (2016), Gupta, Subash Chandra; Prasad, Sahdeo; Aggarwal, Bharat B. (eds.), "Piperine and Its Role in Chronic Diseases", Anti-inflammatory Nutraceuticals and Chronic Diseases, Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, Cham: Springer International Publishing, vol. 928, pp. 173–184, doi:10.1007/978-3-319-41334-1_8, ISBN 978-3-319-41334-1, PMID 27671817, retrieved 2021-06-09