Piper Nigrum Essay

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION
1.1 Overview
Piper Nigrum L. is the fruit of the tropical climbing vine, native to south-western India. In Sarawak, pepper cultivation dates back to 1856 but more extensive planting started in the 1900s. there are two types of breeds of black pepper plantation in Malaysia which is Kuching (Figure 1) and Semenggok Emas (Figure 2). Figure 1: Kuching breed Figure 2: Semenggok Emas breed

Today, pepper is one of the important cash crops supporting the livelihood of about 67,000 rural dwellers in upland areas of Sarawak. Holdings are small, averaging 0.2 ha. they concentrate in certain Districts of Kuching, Samarahan, Sri Aman, Betong and Sarikei Divisions. The present estimated planted area is about 13,000 ha.

Sarawak

It is exposed to a wide range of environmental microbial contamination with contacts of soil, dust, excrement and insects during growing, collecting, processing, storage and transport. Contamination levels of 106–8 CFU/g are unsatisfactory leading to significant problems in export (Al-Jassir, 1992; Plessi et al., 2002; Little et al., 2003; Jalili et al., 2010). Microorganisms such as Salmonella, Escherichia coli, Bacillus cereus and toxigenic molds and yeasts might also be present in black pepper, and their presence potentially creates a public health risk (Ristori et al., 2007). With their low moisture contents, they are non-perishable, and microorganisms cannot grow or multiply. However, if the spice commodities get in contact with water-rich food products, microorganisms might find a suitable environment to germinate and multiply to effective and toxic levels (Tainter and Grenis, 2001; Banerjee and Sarkar, 2003). Because of these, spices should be decontaminated to prevent further food spoilage and food borne

Integrated infrared and hot air-drying system is seen to be that is more effective and efficient to dry the pepper in order in order to replace conventional method which mostly exposed to the bacteria and pest infestation.

1.3 Purpose and Researches Objectives of Study
The goal of the research is to determine the drying process of pepper by using integrated infrared and hot air-dying. The specific objectives are:
i) To determine the effect of drying conditions (temperature, infrared intensity and moisture kinetics of pepper) ii) To investigate using combined both infrared and hot air dryer. iii) To determine the effects of drying on quality or colour of pepper.

1.4 Scope of Study The scope of study is limited to the Piper Nigrum fruits. Variety of Semenggok Emas pepper fruits has been chosen which were taken from a local farm in Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia. CHAPTER