piper

Black pepper, the dried unripe fruit of P. nigrum (family Piperaceae), a climbing plant of the East Indies; used as a condiment, diaphoretic, stimulant, and carminative, and locally as a counterirritant. [L. pepper]

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Patient Information Projects Register [database, UK]

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Pi·per 'pī-pər, 'pip-ər n a very large genus (the type of the family Piperaceae) of tropical plants that comprise the true peppers, are mostly climbing jointed shrubs with pulpy fruit, and include the betel (P. betle), kava (P. methysticum), and matico (P. angustifolium) and the sources of cubebs (from P. cubeba) and black and white pepper (from P. nigrum)

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Pi·per (piґpər) [L. “pepper”] a genus of plants of the family Piperaceae, native to southern Asia, Malaysia, and Indonesia. P. betґle is betel, whose leaf is used in the masticatory also called betel. P. cubeґba L. f. is the tailed or Java pepper, whose fruit is the cubeb. P. methysґticum is the kava plant (see kava kava).