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          White Pepper is the dried seed of ripe fruit, deprived of the outer part of the pericarp of Piper nigrum L. (Family Piperaceae), Herbarium Specimen Number:  DMSC 667, Crude Drug Number:  DMSc 0276.

Constituents  White Pepper contains the same constituents as black pepper but the amount of volatile oil is less.

Description of the plant; Packaging and storage  See under Black Pepper.

Description  Odour, aromatic; taste, pungent.

        Macroscopical  Spherical with a flattened and depressed apical region and slightly conical at the base; dull yellowish grey, 4 to 5 mm in diameter; surface marked by 10 to 16  ridges running from the base to the depression at the apex, the ridges including the vascular bundles which occur in the middle layer of the pericarp; testa, exposed by scraping the residue of pericarp, appearing as a dark brown layer with a darker patch about 1.5 mm in diameter at the base; kernel consisting of almost entirely of perisperm, showing, when broken, a darker greenish outer part and a lighter inner zone surrounding a central hollow; oil cells appearing as scattered bright points in the perisperm; minute embryo lying  embedded in a small endosperm in a depression at the apex of the perisperm.

        Microscopical  The diagnostic characters are lignified beaker cells of endocarp; brown pigment layer of testa; abundant starch in compact polyhedral masses, individual grains being up to 7 μm in diameter; large oil cells, 50 to 60 μm in diameter; epidermal cells and hypodermal sclerenchyma of the outer part of the pericarp absent.

Identification

       A. Complies with the tests for Identification A, B, C, and D described under Black Pepper.

       B. Reflux 500 mg of the sample, in fine powder, with 5 mL of ethanol in a water-bath for 10 minutes, filter and evaporate the filtrate to 1 mL.  Add a few drops of ninhydrin TS, and immerse in a water-bath for a few minute:  a purplish red colour is produced.

Acid-insoluble ash  Not more than 0.5 per cent w/w (Appendix 7.6).

Total ash  Not more than 4.0 per cent w/w (Appendix 7.7).

Volatile oil  Not less than 0.8 per cent v/w (Appendix 7.3H).  Carry out the test as described under Black Pepper.

Water; Foreign matter; Alkaloid content  Complies with the tests described under Black Pepper.

Dose  250 to 500 mg three times a day after meals.