The history and origin of capsicum

Capsicum has its beginning since the beginning of civilizations. This genus is native to tropical and subtropical America in a wide region comprising Mexico and northern Central America, the Caribbean, the lowland Bolivia, the northern lowland Amazonia, and the mid-elevation southern Andes, where archaeological evidence suggests use of this spice crop since 6000 BC.

It is among the first plants domesticated in the Mesoamerican subcontinent. This plant has been used since ancient times as vegetable, natural colorant, and in traditional medicine.

Native Americans had grown chili plants between 5200 and 3400 BC. At this stage, several species have been domesticated to produce different cultivated types of pepper, comprising flavors from mild and sweet to hot and strongly pungent.

The pre-Columbian, indigenous Nahua (Aztec) Amerindian name for the plant was transcribed as chilli or chili, and the usual name in Spanish is chile, which results in the plurals of chillies, chilies, and chiles.

On his first voyage, Columbus encountered a plant whose fruit mimicked the pungency of the black pepper, Piper nigrum L. Columbus called it red pepper because the pods were red. In 1493, Peter Martyr (Anghiera 1493) wrote that Columbus brought home "pepper more pungent than that from the Caucasus."

In the sixteenth century, Capsicum annuum and Capsicum frutescens were widely distributed from the New World to other continents via Spanish and Portuguese traders while the other species are little distributed outside South America.

It was Fuchs, who proposed for the first time in 1543, the botanical term Capsicum, which was adopted later in 1753 by Linneo.

The name would be the Neolithic derivation of Greek “Capsa,” which refers to the peculiar shape of the fruit. The crop was firstly introduced in Europe by Christopher Columbus during his travels after the discovery of America in the fifteenth century and later spread to Africa and Asia.
The history and origin of capsicum

History of Chilies

History of Chilies
Chilies are known to have been cultivated in Peru and Bolivia over 7000 years ago and were widely grown in Central and South America in Pre-Columbian times.

In Peru it was first cultivated in the area of Huaca Prieta.

Columbus took chilies back to Spain from the New World in 1493 mistaking them for black pepper, hence the name ‘chili pepper’.

Their use in cooking rapidly spread though Europe, Africa and Asia.

The chili pepper arrived in India, probably in Goa, with the Portuguese in about 1498 and its popularity as a spice ingredient was rapidly spread throughout South East Asia.

The Sweet peeper, on the other hand was better suited to the Mediterranean climate and its introduction into southern Europe came directly though the Spanish and Portuguese who brought them from their new colonies in South America.

The heat in chilies comes from a substance known as capsaicin, manufactured in the placenta, the central core of the fruit.

From here, the pungency is transmitted to the seeds of the outer skin.
History of Chilies