Physico-chemical properties of black pepper from selected varieties in relation to market grades

Abstract

Black pepper (Piper nigram L.), varieties 'Panniyur- 1', 'Panniyur-2' , 'Panniyur-5'. ' Sreekara ', and 'Subhakara' were graded in a hand operated rotary sieve cleaner-cum-grader. The grader was provided with 3 sets of sieves with pore size of 3.5, 3.8 and 4.8 mm placed one arter the other in the increasing order. The variety 'Subhakara ' had highest amount of berries of size between 3.8 and 4.8 mm (33.3%) which belongs to TGSEB (Tellicherry Garbled Special Extra Bold) grade. 'Panniyur- I', ' Panniyur-2' and ' Panniyur-5' had more th an 60% of its berries under the grade TG (Tellicherry Garbled). Bulk density ranged from 450 to 571 g/l. Bulk density increased with increase in size. However, bulk density decreased when the berry size was > 4.8 mm. The starch content increased as the grade size increased whereas protein and crude fibre did not show any consistent trend. The oleoresin and piperine contents were highest for the lower grade (3.5 mm) but the oil content was not related to grade in all the varieties.