Peppers – Capsicum annum
Description of capsicum:
Capsicum annuum L Capsicum L. Capsicum L is used as a spice in our country and abroad it is more commonly used as a medicine and medicinal product under the name fructus capsici (piper hispanicum ). Paprika is a cultivated plant native to South America, grown for its egg-shaped, elongated cone-shaped fruits. The peppers are thin-skinned, on average 5-10 cm long and 4 cm thick at the base, with a short stem and a five-toothed calyx at the base; they can be red, yellowish red or brownish red in colour. Herbalists look for those with a nice red colour and no yellow spot. The inside of the pepper plant is divided into compartments by 2 or 3 walls, but only imperfectly, and the large number of seeds are arranged on the partitions. The peppers have a pungent flavour, which is due to a special substance in the walls of the fruit, thefrom capsicin which gives the peppers their flavour. Peppers are used in medicine as a preservative. It is used in the preparation of tinctura capsicin-t and paprika paste, and is also used to make Russian spirits and painexpeller. Paprika is also used to make liqueurs. In our country, paprika ripens in the second half of August. The peppers do not ripen all at once, but only in batches, which means that harvesting takes longer. The harvested peppers must be strung on twine and dried in the attic or under the eaves. When the peppers are completely dry, they can be bagged. Source: Béla Páter, The wild herbs