A great quantity of agri or Guiana pepper is grown in Peru, a variety which the natives are very fond of as a condiment. It is not uncommon for an American Indian to make a meal of twenty to thirty pods of capsicum and a little salt and a piece of bread washed down with chica, their popular beverage.
The wort, or Cayenne pottage, may be termed the national dish of the Abyssinians, as that, or its basis, “dillock,” is almost always eaten with their ordinary diet. Equal parts of salt and well-powdered red Cayenne pod are mixed together with a little pea or bean meal to make a paste which is called dillock. This mixture is made in quantities at a time, being preserved in a large gourd shell, generally suspended from the roof. The wort is merely a little water added to the paste, which is boiled over the fire with the addition of a little fat meat. More meal is added to make a kind of porridge, to which sometimes are also added several warm seeds, such as the common cress or black mustard. Sometimes the larger peppers are harvested when full grown, while yet green in color, to be used for mangoes by removing the seeds and stuffing with chow-chow pickles. Cayenne may be considered one of the most useful vegetables in hygiene as a stimulant and auxiliary in digestion and has been considered invaluable in warm climates. It is used medicinally for various ailments in form of tinctures, as a rubefacient and stimulant, especially in case of ulcerated sore throat and also dropsy, colic, and toothache; when mixed with honey and applied externally is a good remedy for quinsy. It is also used for tropical fevers, for gout and paralysis. It acts on the stomach as an aromatic condiment and when preserved in acetic acid it forms chilli vinegar. When the seed of the chillies or capsicum is fresh it has a penetrating, acrid smell, and this irritant property which prevails obscures the narcotic action. Its acridity is owing to an oleaginous substance called capsicine, and this extremely pungent principle produces a most painful burning in the mouth. Capsicum or chillies is generally imported in bales of 130 pounds each and occasionally is bottled in vinegar when green or ripe. In the large factories a special mill is usually reserved for powdering Cayenne exclusively, instead of burr-stone mills with the ordinary shaking sifter. A high-speed iron plate mill is often used, and in connection with this a large revolving reel is required for sifting the spice as it is ground. The coarse part or tailings are returned to the mill automatically by means of a suitable, connected-bucket elevator. A special grinding outfit of this kind can be arranged so that it does not require much attention from the workman, a device which is very essential, as the fine powder works into the skin and great care must be used in handling the goods. Small grinders prefer to buy it powdered from the large factories. Sometimes the powdered Cayenne pepper is adulterated by mixing with wheat flour and made into cakes with yeast and baked hard like biscuit, then they are ground and sifted.
PUBLIC BUILDINGS, BOMBAY
A MADRAS FAMILY
As the children marry, they build an addition to the old home
The pericarp consists of two layers, the outer being composed of yellow, thick-walled cells; the inner layer is twice as broad and exhibits a soft, shrunken parenchyma, traversed by their fibro-vascular bundles. The cells of the outer layer are especially the seat of the fine granules of coloring matter, which contain a fat or oily substance, as may be found if they are removed by alcoholic solution of potash.
The structural details of this fruit afford interesting subjects for microscopical investigation. The peculiarities described are so distinctive that the presence of foreign matter is easily detected. The cells of the pericarp or epidermis are of a peculiar flattened and chain-like angular form, which are characteristic of Cayenne. The other structures are not as prominent, but are not liable to be confounded with those of any adulterants. Diagrammatic representatives of this structure are given in [Fig. 45], Chap. III, and the appearance of the pure ground Cayenne under polarized light in [Fig. 44].
The portions of the seed in the powder are not readily distinguished without careful examination. They are, however, characteristic and contain starch, the form of which is shown in [Fig. 20], Chap. III. The adulterants used are mineral coloring matter to hide the loss of color, which takes place on exposure of Cayenne to light, and for added weight ground rice, tumeric, husk of mustard, etc. Rice and corn flour adulterations are shown in [Fig. 45], which cannot be confused with the few starch grains found in the lower layer of the pericarp or in the seed. The tumeric and mustard are recognized by their peculiar structure.
The chemical composition of capsicum is (1) a fixed oil without sharp smell or taste and which is almost entirely in the seed; (2) a camphor-like substance which tastes and smells sharp, and which contains the peculiar principle of Cayenne (capsicine); this principle is found both in the pod and in the seeds, but in greater quantity in the pod; (3) a resinous body, the red coloring matter (capsicum red), which is found only in the pod.