Brazelian pepper

Scientific name of Brazilian pepper: Piper colubrinum Link.

Family:  Piperaceae

Name of Brazilian pepper in different languages: 

 Sanskrit:  Krushna

 English: Brazelian pepper

 Malayalam: Brazilian Thippaly 

Plant description:-

An erect shrub, 1.5-2 m height, stem put forth numerous aerial roots that go and penetrate into the soil. Water stagnation is not detrimental as long as the shoot is above water level. Due to affinity for fresh water, it can be used only with irrigation

Leaf Arrangement

Lanceolate	Margin-Entire	Venation-Cross venulated

Useful plant parts:

Root, seed

Medicinal uses:

The plant has been found immune to the foot rot causing fungus Phytophthora capsici and resistant to nematodes that cause root knots in black pepper. It is quite compatible with black pepper and hence used as a rootstock for black pepper grafting.

Chemical contents:

Piperlongumine, peppeyartin, pepparin

Propagation : 

By cuttings or seeds. Seeds have to be fresh while sowing since viability is low. Seeds sown in sand germinate readily and after four leaf stages can be transferred to bags filled with any suitable potting mixture. Cuttings with 3 nodes if kept in poly bags with any medium will root with in a week. When cuttings are taken, collect cuttings only from main shoot and avoid lateral branches that bear fruits, since grafts on such shoots tended to fail quickly. Shoots with olive green or dark green colour only should be used and those having yellow, brown or discolouration must be avoided. It takes about five months time to reach graftable stage after transplanting of seedlings or planting of cuttings when a height of 50 cm or above is reached. Grafting at 50 cm height is needed to avoid splashing of soil, debris etc. that contain fungal spores to the pepper vine and also to have the more aerial roots growing in to the ground. Since the plant is shade loving, root stock materials are to be raised under shade nets or houses with 50 per cent shade and watered daily.