Pepper is a plant of the Piperacee family, cultivated for its fruits, which are then dried for use as spices. The same fruit, through different processing processes, is used to produce white pepper, black pepper and green pepper. The plant is native to southern India and is extensively cultivated in both India and tropical countries. The ripe fruit looks like a dark red berry, has a diameter of about five millimeters and contains only one seed. Pepper is one of the most common spices in the European cuisine and its derivatives are known and appreciated since ancient times both, for their taste and for their use in Ayurvedic medicine. Its spicy taste is piperina. Pepper has been used as a spice in India since prehistoric times. It was cultivated for the first time, most likely, along the coasts of the Malabar in India, currently corresponding to the state of Kerala. It was cultivated for the first time, most likely, along the coasts of the Malabar in India, currently corresponding to the state of Kerala. Pepper was a valuable commodity and was often called black gold and used as a bargaining chip. Until well after the Middle Ages all the black pepper found in Europe, Middle East and North Africa came from the Indian region of the malabar. From the 16th century, pepper was also imported from Indonesia, Madagascar, Malaysia and other states in Southeast Asia. Black pepper, together with other spices produced in India and the countries of South East Asia, has changed the history of the world. It was for the preciousness of the spices that the European states searched for the route to the Indies and the consequent colonization of those countries.