0]--Spices are aromatic vegetable
substances characterized as a class by containing some essential or
volatile oil which gives taste and individuality to the material. They
are used for the flavoring of food and are composed of mineral matter
and the various nitrogenous and non-nitrogenous compounds found in all
plant bodies. Since only a comparatively small amount of a spice is used
for flavoring purposes, no appreciable nutrients are added to the food.
Some of the spices have characteristic medicinal properties.
Occasionally they are used to such an extent as to mask the natural
flavors of foods, and to conceal poor cooking and preparation or poor
quality. For the microscopic study of spices the student is referred to
Winton, "Microscopy of Vegetable Foods," and Leach, "Food Inspection and
Analysis."

205. Pepper.--Black and white pepper are the fruit of the pepper plant
(_Piper nigrum_), a climbing perennial shrub which grows in the East and
West Indies, the greatest production being in Sumatra. For the black
pepper, the berry is picked before thoroughly ripe; for the white
pepper, it is allowed to mature. White pepper has the black pericarp or
hull removed. Pepper owes its properties to an alkaloid, piperine, and
to a volatile oil. In the black pepper berries there is present ash to
the extent of about 4.5 per cent, it ought not to be above 6.5 per cent;
ether extract, including piperine and resin, not less than 6.5 per cent;
crude fiber not more than 16 per cent; also some starch and nitrogenous
material. The white pepper contains less ash and cellulose than the
black pepper. Ground pepper is frequently grossly adulterated; common
adulterants being: cracker crumbs, roasted nut shells and fruit stones,
charcoal, corn meal, pepper hulls, mustard hulls, and buckwheat
middlings. The pepper berries wrinkle in drying, and this makes it
difficult to remove the sand which may have adhered to them. An
excessive amount of sand in the ash should be classed as adulteration.
Adulterants in pepper are detected mainly by the use of the microscope.
The United States standard for pepper is: not more than 7 per cent total
ash, 15 per cent fiber, and not less than 25 per cent starch and 6 per
cent non-volatile ether extract.[71]

206. Cayenne.--Cayenne or red pepper is the fruit pod of a plant,
_capsicum_, of which there are several varieties,--the small-fruited
kind, used to make cayenne or red pepper; and the tabasco sort, forming