A Review on Conventional and Biotechnological Approaches in White Pepper

Production

Nurul Shahirah Aziza, Noor Soffalina Sofian Senga, Noorul Syuhada Mohd Razalia,

Seng Joe Lima, Wan Aida Wan Mustaphaa*

Accepted Article
a
Centre for Biotechnology and Functional Food, Faculty of Science and Technology,

Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 UKM Bangi, Selangor, MALAYSIA.

* Corresponding author: Wan Aida Wan Mustapha, School of Chemical Sciences and

Food Technology, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia,

43600 UKM Bangi, Selangor. E-mail wanaidawm@ukm.edu.my

ABSTRACT

White pepper is the dried seeds obtained from pepper berries (Piper nigrum L.) after the

removal of the pericarp. It has been widely used as seasoning and condiments in food

preparation. Globally, white pepper fetches a higher price compared to black pepper due to

its lighter colour, preferable milder flavour and pungency. Increasing global demand of the

spice outpaced the supply as the conventional production method used is laborious, lengthy

and also less hygienic. The most common conventional method is water retting but can also

include pit soil, chemical, boiling, steaming and mechanical methods. The introduction of

biotechnology approach has gain a lot of interests, as it is a more rapid, convenient and

hygienic method of producing white pepper. This technique involves the application of

This article has been accepted for publication and undergone full peer review but has not
been through the copyediting, typesetting, pagination and proofreading process, which
may lead to differences between this version and the Version of Record. Please cite this
article as doi: 10.1002/jsfa.9481

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

 microorganisms and/or enzymes. This review highlights both conventional and latest

biotechnological processes of white pepper production.

Keywords: white pepper, conventional method, biotechnology method, processing

Accepted Article
INTRODUCTION

Piper nigrum L. is a tropical climbing vine with an average life span of up to 10 – 12

years.1 It is cultivated in many tropical and subtropical regions of the world including India,

Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Africa, Brazil, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, and China.2-4 The

pepper plant produces tiny white flowers and up to 50 to 60 fruit per stalk.4-6 Pepper fruit is

a single seeded drupe, which is often referred to as a berry. These berries are winded

together in helical arrangement on its stalk.

Pepper berry is usually small, globular, possessing a fleshy pericarp and hard endocarp.7 It

may vary depending mostly on weather, crop management and intensity of rainfall of the

producer country.8 These pepper berries may also exist as fully ripe berries (red) and unripe

berries (green) at the same time. Upon ripening, the young berries change from green to a

yellowish red colour and their flesh becomes softer. The berries are hand plucked and the

ripen ones are processed to produce white pepper while the unripe berries are sun-dried to

produce black pepper.9,10 Normally, 80% of the crop is processed into black pepper as it is

cheaper and more convenient, while the remaining is processed into white pepper.11

White pepper is produced from ripened berries commonly by conventional method of water

retting. Production of white pepper always gives lower yield of mass compared to black

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

 pepper. Typically, 100 kg of mature berries are able to yield about 25-28 kg of white

pepper, compared to 33-37 kg of black pepper. The reduction in yield for both products is

due to the loss of moisture from the flesh during drying process to produce black pepper
Accepted Article
and the removal of pericarp to produce white pepper. The process of water retting is time

consuming, in which it takes weeks to soften the pericarp. It is also labour intensive as it

involves additional processes compared to that of black pepper production, such as

separation, immersion and decortication prior to drying. Although the use of conventional

method and mechanical decortications at industrial or farm level is practiced, producing

white pepper in bulk is still a difficult task. Furthermore, the cleanliness and quality of the

yield is easily and highly compromised during the process.12 Thus, it is important to supply

better quality and hygienic white pepper to consumers as well as to increase production and

fill the demand gap in current pepper market.

Ravindran and Kallupurackal7 mentioned that other methods have been tested to produce

white pepper but they are less accepted by consumers probably due to different quality of

white pepper produced such as appearance, texture, colour and size. However, alternative

methods in white pepper production using biotechnology processes, including

microorganisms or enzymes have garnered a lot of interests among researchers as it is said

to offer a more rapid, convenient and hygienic process of producing white pepper. This

would be beneficial as the processing of white pepper could be improved by reducing

production time in order to fill market demand and generate higher profits.

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

 WHITE PEPPER

White pepper is a common spice used in Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai and Western dishes. It

exists in the market as white pepper corn or finely grounded into powder. Naturally, the
Accepted Article
aroma of white pepper is rather sweet and warmly aromatic.13 The colour is light creamy
10,11,14,15
with milder flavour and less pungent as compared to black pepper. The milder

flavour is attributed to lower levels of α-phellandrene and limonene that gives peppery

flavour and citrus aroma respectively; typical characteristic of black pepper.16,17 Compared

to black pepper, white pepper is preferred as its colour and flavour blend well in food such

as soups, mash potatoes, sauces, sandwiches, salad dressing and mayonnaise.18,19 The use

of white pepper instead of black pepper could avoid black specks from grounded black

pepper from interfering the food appearance of which can reduce consumers‟ acceptance.

White pepper quality is commonly categorised by its physical and chemical quality.

Physical characteristics of white pepper are measured by its bulk density, cream colour,

surface appearance, insects count and extraneous matter present from white pepper. Ground

white pepper quality may be decreased if the powder is adulterated with extraneous matter.

Common adulterants used in whole or ground pepper are low-quality pepper and various

foreign matters such as wood or fiber.7 Whereas the chemical quality of white pepper is

often measured in terms of oleoresin, piperine, starch and oil contents.20 Apart from that,

microbiological quality can be included for safety reasons to limit certain bacteria such as

Salmonella sp., coliforms, Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus.

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

 White pepper quality standards and guidelines

There are few current standards available to evaluate quality of white pepper product

provided by different bodies such as International Pepper Community (IPC), Vietnam

Accepted Article
pepper standard, Standard ASTA (American Spice Trade Association), European Spice

Association (ESA) and International Organization for Standardization (ISO). According to

the revision of quality parameter set by International Pepper Community (IPC), whole

white pepper quality was evaluated according to its physical and microbiological

properties. IPC has specified different category for partially processed whole white pepper

(WP-2) and processed whole white pepper (WP-1) as showed in Table 1.

Other parameters have also been reviewed and provided in 2015 by International

Organization for Standardization (ISO) via ISO 959-2 describing the specification of black

pepper and white pepper including the definition, odour, flavour, physical characteristic,

chemical characteristic, packing and marking. In another revision by Vietnam Standard

(TCVN 7037: 2002) standard, the chemical parameter of white pepper was developed as

presented in Table 2.

The option of standard depends on the mutual agreement of supply contract and letter credit

on the basic criteria of white pepper to determine agreeable and acceptable quality of white

pepper between both exporter and importer.

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

 Oleoresin, piperine and essential oil of white pepper

Oleoresin is a mixture of resin, essential oil and piperine alkaloid, obtained from solvent

extraction of white pepper. It appears as dark green and viscous liquid with a strong aroma
Accepted Article
that can be used to replace 20 - 25 times its weight of spice for an equivalent flavouring

effect21 and contributes to the aroma, flavour and pungency of pepper.22 Piperine alkaloid is

the major bio-active component of pepper. It containing nitrogenous element that

contributes to its pungency and biting taste.23 The extracted oleoresin need to be further

refined in order to obtain higher purity of piperine. As for the essential oil, the presence of

terpenoid and phenolic compounds contributes to antioxidative activity.24 Essential oil

harbour constituents such as α-pinene, β-pinene, limonene, myrcene, linalool, α-

phellandrene, sabinene, β-caryophyllene and germacrene-D which contributes to the

aromatic and flavour properties of pepper.25,26 The abundance of these organoleptic

component varies according to the variety and maturity of pepper, extraction condition and

types of solvent used.27 Table 3 shows the amount of piperine, oleoresin and essential oil

from selected different Indian cultivars. Varieties such as Balankotta and Panniyur 1 are

more suitable and ideal to be used in production of white pepper due to their larger sized

pepper berries.18 The increased in size of Panniyur 1 variety was achieved through

hybridization.7 On the other hand, Balankotta variety are rich in essential oil and p-cymene

resulting in turmeric, citrusy and green mango-like notes.28,29

Global pepper and white pepper production

Pepper products such as white pepper and black pepper depend on the production of fresh

pepper from its producing country. It was estimated that 20% of the total world pepper

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

 production was processed into white pepper.30 However, International Pepper Community

(IPC) in 2013 stated that the global production of pepper was in shortage of 45,000 tons

indicating a higher supply needed to full fill the demand. Figure 1 shows the world pepper
Accepted Article
production of 8 countries from 2000 to 2016. It shows that pepper production from major

producer countries fluctuated for the last 16 years and decreased simultaneously in 2015 to

2016 for Indonesia, India and Sri Lanka. In another report, Malaysian Pepper Board (MPB)

in December 2016 reported that pepper yield in Brazil and India was expected to be much

less than the predicted amount. This correspond to the significant decline of pepper planting

areas since 2005 to 2014.8 The unexpected change in pepper production at any years can

affect the price of pepper product eventually. Therefore, measures should be taken to

enhance the production of pepper to avoid supply shortage in pepper market worldwide.

Table 4 shows the data on comparison of white pepper and black pepper production and

export in 2014 and 2015. Vietnam produce 23,500 tons of white pepper and export 96.7%

throughout worldwide. This is in contrast to China that produced 35,000 tons of white

pepper but only exporting 3,000 tons of it, which accounts to 8.6 % from the total white

pepper production, whereas the remaining 32,501 tons (92.9%) was used for the country‟s

own consumption. After China and Vietnam, Indonesia was the third highest white pepper

producer supplying 18,000 tons of white pepper followed by Malaysia and Brazil (3,000

and 2,000 tons respectively). Other country such as India and Sri Lanka focused more on

producing mainly black pepper rather than white pepper.

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

 In Malaysia, estimated area for pepper cultivation is approximately 13,000 hectares with

Sarawak being the highest pepper producing state, that accounts for more than 95% of the

country‟s total production. Other pepper producing states include Johor and Sabah. The
Accepted Article
different varieties of pepper cultivated include Semongok I, Semongok II, Semongok III,

Semongok Perak, Kaluvally, Kuching, Belantung, and Djambi. International Pepper

Community report stated that Malaysia exported a total of 51,153 tons of black and white

pepper in 3 years (2013 to 2016) in which only 9,424 tons are white pepper, while 41,728

tons are black pepper.

White pepper although having less yield than black pepper has always been reported to be

marketed at a higher price. The price of white and black pepper in Europe (US

Dollar/tones) increased as much as 21.54% and 16.76% respectively, from 2013 to 2014.

Malaysian pepper price (RM/tones) from 2013 to 2015 showed an increment of 20% to

40% for white pepper and 20% to 30% for black pepper depending on the district. A study

by Sephton11 showed the price of white pepper in Malaysia is higher compared to black

pepper due to higher costs of white pepper production. Hence, an increase in pepper

production particularly white pepper will subsequently increase the country‟s income as the

price of white pepper can fetch up to 40% higher compared to that of black pepper.18

STRUCTURE OF THE PEPPER BERRY

Since white pepper is produced by decortication of the outer pericarp, it is important to

understand the structure of it. The structure of Piper nigrum L. berries is similar with

drupes or stone type of fruits. Drupes such as peaches, plums, and cherries have single

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

 fleshy fruit with a hard stone which contain a single seed. A fresh pepper berry consists of a

hard core and soft outer rind.32 Cross section of a pepper berry reveals several distinct

sections, each is made up of one or more layers of cells. The sections are represented in
Accepted Article
Figure 2.

The pericarp of a pepper berry consists of three sections namely i) exocarp; for outer layer

which includes skin or peel, ii) mesocarp; middle layer flesh and iii) endocarp; innermost

layer.34,35 During the growth of pepper berries, the outermost layer of cells becomes heavily

thickened on the surface whilst the next two or three layers of cells become lignified and

pitted.3 The epidermis of the pericarp is subtended by a layer of thick walled sclereids

which varies from 1 - 400 µm in thickness.36 The layer exists to promote protection and

strength mechanism before the berries reach maturity stage. This firm and hard pericarp is

the main part to be removed during the production of white pepper.

Decortication of pepper berry skin

White pepper is obtained when the outer pericarp of Piper nigrum L. berries have been

decorticated. During the process, the pectin present in mesocarpic fleshy area of the pepper

skin starts to degrade enzymatically and break apart from the core.37 Pectin in the middle

lamella of cell wall acts as the intercellular cementing substance that contributes to

adhesion between parenchyma cells and gives mechanical strength of the pepper berry

tissues.36,38-40 The dissolution of pectin due to enzymatic reaction will cause initial

loosening of cells structure and softening of pepper skin. Further dissolvement of middle

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

 lamella layer by pectolytic enzymes causes separation of the cells that resembles the skin

loosening of mature ripe fruits.41

Accepted Article
At the same time, cellulosic cell wall starts to rupture when non-cellulose materials such as

pectin, lignin and hemicellulose as mention above degrades during retting. Pepper berries

skin cells are exposed to natural decaying agent presence in water and also to their own

enzymatic activity which helps to disrupt and weaken the bonds and structures of the cell

wall. Prolong retting will eventually increase the water uptake by osmosis through a semi

permeable membrane into the cell causing the cell to be stretched and swelled to its limit of

elasticity.42,43 The longer the pepper berries are retted in the water, the deeper the enzymatic

reaction act to degrade the pericarp cells. When the extracellular matrix (i.e. cellulose,

pectins, hemicellulose) is weakened and removed by the enzyme, the protoplast of plant

cell will burst due to immersion in solution of low osmotic potential.44,45 This will lead to

major damage to the structure of plant cell wall and cause the berries skin to totally loosen

from its core. Thus, causing the flesh of retted fruits become softer and enable the peeling

of pepper skin by abrasion.

CONVENTIONAL METHOD OF PRODUCING WHITE PEPPER

Retting

Retting is a process that involves the use of natural microorganisms to break the chemical

bonds and allows for the loosening and separation of the fibre bundles from non-fibre

fractions or woody core through biological activity.46-48 The term “ret” actually means rot49

and it is accomplished by the joint action of water and microorganisms.50 During retting,

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

 the fleshy part is to be „rotted‟ nearly for a week by contact with running water, still water

or dew.49 The most common method used for the production of white pepper is water

retting. Water retting is also used for bast plants such as hemp, jute, flax, and kenaf for the
Accepted Article
production of long fibres.51

Water retting method

Water retting is used to aid the decortication process in the production of white pepper and

is adopted in countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. In the initial stage of

white pepper production, the ripened red berries were harvested and removed from its

spikes.19,52,53 They are then packed into gunny bags and soaked in slow running river

water.3,32,53 This process softens and rots the pericarp causing skin and flesh detachment

from the core of the berries. Soaked berries are then trampled and washed thoroughly to

clean and remove any remaining attached pericarp.2,20,37 Besides rubbing and trampling, the

pericarp can also be removed by scrubbing or maceration against a plastic wire mesh54 or

by machineries.2,33,55 The cores of the berries obtained are then rinsed with tap water and

sun dried. This method is generally standard in principle and objective but can differ

according to geographical location, weather and type of cultivars.

In Indonesia, retting of pepper berries is achieved by keeping them in jute bags and

submerged in river for up to 15 days. The outer parts are rubbed off to obtain the core and

then sun-dried.56 Similar techniques are employed in Malaysia in which ripened berries

filled into jute gunnysacks and soaked in running water (stream or river) for about 7 to 14

days to soften and decay the pericarp of the berries. In India, research conducted by

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

 Zachariah20, ret the red pepper berries in water (microbiological fermentation) for 8-10

days followed by trampling to decorticate the outer skin and sun drying. Whilst in

Thailand, Steinhaus & Schieberle56 study attempted retting using still water in which the
Accepted Article
pepper berries were submerged in concrete basins for 15 days followed by manual

decortication. The Thai pepper genotype was found to be different from the Indonesian,

Malaysian and Brazilian pepper in which it does not generate the malodorous 3-

methylphenol during fermentation.56

During water retting process of pepper berries, several factors such as safety, hygiene and

quality of white pepper is often neglected.57 This is because the process is lengthy, wet and

merely focused on the yield. Although some standards had been established for the quality

control of white pepper, nevertheless the practice of uncontrolled and unsupervised retting

can lead to many flaws and violation of product quality.

Water retting natural decortication

When pepper berries are immersed in water, enzymes produced by common

microorganism present in the water such as basidiomycetes, fungi and anaerobic bacteria

e.g Clostridium felsinium will act on the skin of pepper berries to weaken or remove the

lignin and pectinic glue that bind the fibre bundles together.46,58,59 Specific pectic enzymes

such as, pectin-methylesterase and poly-galacturonase are able to act on pectins and pectic

acids respectively.60 The matrix joining the fibre to tissue begins to dissolve in flowing

water and break the thin-walled skin fibre tissues.47,61 Through the degradation of non-

cellulosic components such as pectin, lignin and hemicellulose during the retting process51,

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

 the main cellulose backbone is exposed and degraded by times slowly.59 Prolonged

immersion in water will cause the disruption of the cellulosic cell wall and cause skin

detachment from the seed.

Accepted Article
Pathogenic fungi and bacteria are able to cause structural failure through the loss of

turgidity by breaking down pectin and to some extent even the cellulose and lignin.62

Prolonged water retting will cause the cell wall to collapse and reduce the strength of the

pericarp cells, thus enabling easy separation of the outer skin layer through gentle abrasion.

The use of clean and abundant amount of water is crucial for proper retting process to avoid

microbial contamination.61 Numbers of potential pathogens can be controlled and reduced

by performing the retting in barrels and consistently changing the water with clean water.63

Immersing berries in still water such as tank or container requires changing of water every

2 to 3 days to avoid foul smells and low quality of white pepper yield.64,65

Duration of water retting process

The duration of water retting is usually varied due to the different maturity level of pepper

berries; even if they are from the very same stalk. Usually, a single stalk of pepper berries

can bear both unripe and ripe fruits at the same time. Thus, to ensure all pepper berries are

completely rotted, the retting time is usually lengthened to more than 8 days. After 9 days

of soaking in water, most of the pepper skin and its pericarp will become weak and soft.2

On the 11th day, berries are ready to be collected on a tarp and rubbed to remove the outer

skin.66 Water retting from various countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, India and

Thailand as elaborated in section 5.2, show that the duration of retting conducted is similar

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

 around the world which requires about 8 to 15 days maximum for complete removal of the

pericarp of mature berries. However, some literature did mentioned that the water retting

process in water streams or rivers can take as long as two to three weeks.57,67,68 The soaking
Accepted Article
duration may also vary depending on conditions such as temperature, microorganisms or

bacteria present in the water to ret the berries.59,69

Advantages and disadvantages of water retting

Water retting process has been used for many years and it is still applied extensively in

countries producing large supplies of white pepper due to its ability to produce higher yield

and greater uniformity products.51,70-74 The use of river or stream to soak the berries

requires less cost as it uses natural existing resource to conduct the retting process. The

initial set up cost is also inexpensive as the pepper berries were stuffed into gunny sack and

after sufficient retting, the drying process was carried out using sun-drying75. However, the

use of the water retting method has been considerably reduced over the years due to the

extensive stench and pollution caused by anaerobic bacterial fermentation.51,76 The bacterial

fermentation during prolonged retting tends to produce malodour, releasing vile and putrid

smells into the air.58,59

The manual practice of packing pepper berries into the gunny sack as well as threshing and

removing the loosen pericarp can be very long, tiring and labour-intensive process. In

addition, prolonged water retting periods is not favourable as it delays marketable finish

product and profit.

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

 Soil pit method

Soil pit is a traditional method which require the matured ripened berries to be packed in

gunny bags and buried in pit soil before being covered with damp soil for about 5 to 7
Accepted Article
days.52,77 The moist and damp soil promote the microbial degradation of the berry flesh and

rotting process to take place.18 The degraded pericarp is then removed by washing and the

white pepper is subsequently bleached and sun dried. According to Datta et al.18, this

method is generally less time consuming as compared to the water retting method. This is

probably due to the high concentration of microbes in the damp soil that helps to rot and

accelerate the loosening of pepper skin. However, this practice is unhygienic and may

cause uncontrolled degradation and over retting of the pericarp due to the direct and

constant contact with the damp soil. Since the pepper berries are buried, the operators have

very limited visual assessment to gauge the degree of degradation in order to halt the

process if necessary.

Chemical method

Joshi78 patented a way to produce white pepper by steeping dried black pepper in water

(1:5) for 4 days. After decortication of black pepper, the white pepper produced was treated

with 4% sodium hydroxide solution and boiled. The method results in pericarp detachment

and complete skin removal by agitation or gentle rubbing. White seeds produced were then

washed and bleached with 2.5% hydrogen peroxide solution to lighten the colour and dried.

Approximately 20 years later, Lewis79 attempted to produce white pepper by blanching

green pepper to deactivate the enzymes followed by a mild bleaching with sulphur dioxide

(SO2). But the use of chemical bleaching in food processing is not favourable as it is a risk

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

 to human health.80 Omanakutty81 soaked the berries in alkali solution followed by

blanching, removal of the berries skin, bleaching and drying. Results reveal that it takes

less than an hour for fresh berries and 12 – 14 hours for black pepper to decorticate
Accepted Article
completely. However, the use of chemicals in food processing is often not favourable due

to toxicology and food safety risk towards consumer.

Blanching method

Blanching is the process of pre-heating food product by immersing it in hot water below

100°C or steam.82 Blanching or steaming the ripen pepper berries for 10 to 15 min enable

the decortication of the outer rind of the berries.83,84 Patent by Akio and Masayuki85,

reported that blanching time is preferably less than 15 min; about 3 to 10 min to suppress

the loss of pepper aromatic and essential oil components as well as deterioration of colour

due to aging. However, blanching for less than 1 minute is not efficient to peel the pepper

skin. After being blanched, pepper seeds were frozen at -4 °C to -15 °C (optional) to allow

efficient separation of seeds and to peel the skin.

Blanching or boiling at short time is not suitable to remove pepper skin but interestingly, it

can be used to produce black pepper. Immature pepper berries were blanched at 80 °C for

2.5 - 5.0 min on trial scale86 and 7.0 - 10.0 min on operational scale to produce black

pepper prior to sun drying.87,88 Blanching the berries in boiling water able to reduces

microbial load, washes off dust particles, produce instant black pepper yield, gives a glossy

appearance of uniform lustrous black colour to the finished product and prevents

mouldiness of berries.19,52 However, according to Risfaheri and Nurdjannah1 prolonged

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

 blanching at 80°C can cause colour deterioration in black pepper since it can deactivate the

enzymes responsible for browning process.

Accepted Article
Boiling method

Similar to blanching, soaking in boiling water is able to soften the pericarp of ripen pepper

berries and make decortication process easier.19 The heat during boiling will ruin and

destroy the chemical bonds that hold the pericarp connective tissues causing the pepper

flesh and skin to become soft and collapse. After the boiling process, the skin of the berries

was removed manually or mechanically and collected for the recovery of pepper oil. White

pepper obtained were then washed, bleached, drained and dried under the sun.66 Prolonged

soaking in boiling water can leads to a loss of pepper aroma due to the release of volatile

oil.89 Reduction in oil constituents such as caryophyllene and pinene were detected in white

pepper prepared from green pepper by boiling technique.3 White pepper produced by this

method exhibited light brownish colour due to gelatinisation of starch in contrast to pure

creamy white colour obtained by traditional method.83 The major concern in high

temperature treatment is the change of colour and reduction of valuable oil and aromatic

component of white pepper. However, since no retting operation is involved the product is

free from any unpleasant odour.

Mechanical method

Another method to produce white pepper is by mechanical means. Several attempts have

been made to mechanically remove the pepper berries skin.33,52,83,90-93 However, the usage

of machineries can be difficult to control due to the spherical and non-linear surface of the

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

 pepper berries. In addition, increasing the force of the machine can also cause high

breakage of white pepper seeds.52 For example, Jusoh and Salih91 built a simple machine

(Figure 3) to separate berries singularly from its stalk. This is to help the preparation
Accepted Article
process before the retting of pepper berries. From the study, it was found that the increase

in cylinder speed rotation of threshing machine will increase the friction force between the

cylinder and pepper berries thus leads to a higher percentage of berries breakage. The

optimum speed for separation was found to be at 11.67 s-1 with average capacity of 338

kg/hour with 99% efficiency and less than 5% breakage was accounted.

Deng90 has built a pepper peeling and washing machine with configuration and structure

similar to rice mill grinder that capable to produce good quality white pepper with low

breaking rate and loss rate. Time and pressure applied on black pepper berries were

controlled to obtain the white core with minimal broken and crushed grains. The grinding

step is appropriately repeated until the black outer skin part is completely removed. In

another study, Hung, Nhu & Truong94 made an attempt to produce white pepper from black

pepper using the combination method of water retting and mechanical aid. The findings

show that soaking black pepper in water (1:1, w/v) for 48 hours at 35°C was able to

decorticate about 90.2% of the pepper with 6.58% piperine content. Shorter time of soaking

was feasible due to the assistance of a miller-like machine to decorticate the black pepper

skin. However, some authors reported that the mechanical decortications often produced

white pepper with lesser aroma and flavour. This is due to the heat generated during the

mechanical process leading to great loss of active and volatile principles.15,30,83

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

 BIOTECHNOLOGY APPROACH IN PRODUCTION OF WHITE PEPPER

The concept applied in the biotechnology approach is similar to traditional methods, by

utilising microorganisms to assist in the production of white pepper. However, instead of

Accepted Article
merely soaking the berries in a river over a long period of time to initiate natural decaying

process, an induced approach by applying biological technology is introduced. The

application of bio-aid is expected to generate higher white pepper yields with better quality

in a fair period of immersion time with lower labour and process cost for the production of

white pepper. Biotechnological approach such as the use of enzymes and microorganisms

to facilitate the retting of plants is a promising alternative. Many studies demonstrated that

it is a more convenient, rapid, safer and greener approach that produces desirable results as

compared to conventional methods.

Enzymatic peeling method

One of the most important biotechnological techniques applied in industries nowadays is

the use of enzymes. Enzymatic hydrolysis is a highly effective technology as it helps to

produce higher yields, eliminate neutral steps in processing, possess higher selectivity, cost-

effective and allow the process to run in milder operating condition. Due to its

effectiveness, it has a high potential for the application and processing in various industries

such as biomedical, pharmaceuticals, chemical, biofuels, food and beverages. It is also

considered environmental friendly as no solvents or chemical reagents are used in the

process.95 Enzymes are excellent peeling agents and are used extensively in the food

industry for peeling purposes.96 The method has also been employed in the processing of

pepper berries to replace the conventional practices. Table 5 summarised previous research

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

 works utilising enzyme to degrade the cell wall to facilitate decortication of pepper berry

pericarp in order to obtain white pepper. From the studies, the purpose of enzyme used was

mainly to hasten the skin decortication of pepper berries and shorten the period taken to
Accepted Article
collect yield.

Enzymes have been used in processing pectin containing materials as well as purified

pectin. Pectic enzymes are classified based on the mode of attack on the specific structural

element of the pectin molecule.104 Pectinases were used in Toker and Bayindirli105 study in

the removal of the skin of stone fruits such as peaches, apricots and nectarines. The use of

Peelzym (I, II, III and IV) to peel stone fruits‟ skin and flesh were conducted at moderately

high temperatures and resulting in success decortication within a short time. Apricots is

peeled optimally by using Peelzym IV at 45°C for 57 – 60 minutes, nectarines by Peelzym I

at 44 – 47°C for 53 – 58 minutes and peaches by using Peelzym IV at 41 – 46°C for 44–54

minutes. Many studies used the application of enzymes to facilitate skin peeling by

hydrolysing plant cell walls.6,10,100-102,106

The use of enzymes also aids in the extraction of active compounds in various plant

samples. Through the peeling process using enzymes, the cell wall composition and

structure collapses and leads to the release of many valuable soluble solids or active

compounds such as phenolics and antioxidant components that can be extracted by solvent.

For example, enzymes help to increase the total amount of phenolic content and antioxidant

activity in rice bran107, cactus cladodes108, date fruit109, ginger and garlic110,111. Thus, the

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

 application of enzymes in the production of white pepper can be highly beneficial in terms

of physical and chemical gains.

Accepted Article
Multiple enzymes

The use of multiple enzymes with optimum parameters can improve the final result and

also reduce the processing time in producing white pepper. Rosnah & Chan35 carried out

enzymatic retting on fresh pepper berries using Viscozyme and Celluclast. The study

revealed that enzymatic retting at 42°C with acidic pH 4, resulted in complete softening of

the pepper berry pericarp in only 7 days, instead of 15 days using the conventional method.

Based on the information provided by Sigma-Aldrich site page, Viscozyme L is a multi-

enzyme complex which contains a wide range of carbohydrases, including arabanase,

cellulase, β-glucanase, hemicellulase, and xylanase while Celluclast is a cellulase produced

from selected strain of the fungus Trichoderma reesei, is used to break down the cellulose

into glucose, cellobiose and longer glucose polymers. These enzymes are effective cell wall

degrading enzymes and apt to be used for peeling purposes.

The use of enzymes has great potential in promoting the decortication of plant cell walls

which has been supported in a study carried out by Vinod36. He reported that five types of

different enzymes isolated from bacteria namely cellulase, pectinase, amylase, xylanase and

protease were excellent and effective on degrading the pepper pericarp. In another study,

Najihah6 reported an efficient pectinase treatment resulted in decortication of 83.75% black

pepper to white pepper after 6 days with 5 times pectinase dilution. Syahreeny et al.10

research found that 500 ppm pectinase or PeelZyme at pH 5 was able to peel pepper berries

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

 and resulted in the best surface morphology of white peppers produced. PeelZyme used in

the study consist of mixture of pectinase from Aspergillus niger and Trichoderma reesei,

hemicellulase, cellulase and arabinose.112

Accepted Article
Another multi-enzyme sourced from Aspergillus sp product is Pectinex, an active pectolytic

enzyme preparation, isolated from a selected strain of Aspergillus aculeatus. It consists of

mainly pectintranseliminase, polygalacturonase and pectinesterase as well as small amounts

of hemicellulases and cellulases. Pectinase hydrolyses pectin which is a polysaccharide

component of the cell wall. Several studies have demonstrated that the use of Pectinex is

less favourable than Viscozyme due to lower efficiency effect. Baby & Ranganathan113

reported that the highest yield of oleoresin obtained from the extraction of Viscozyme

treated green chili (6%) and the least was from green chili treated with Pectinex Ultra SP_L

(5.1%). Huynh, Hai & Phu114 also reported that Viscozyme L enzyme used in the

production of white peppercorn had a better yield than treatment with Pectinex Ultra SP_L.

Enzymatic decortication is a promising application for white pepper production. However,

the price of commercial grade enzyme is expensive which makes enzymes less likely to be

used in larger scale. Another effective yet affordable alternative was to use microbial

fermentation in production of white pepper as described in the following sections.

Application of microorganisms

Microorganisms have shown excellent capability in producing high quality white pepper at

relatively short time with lower microbial contamination. Most methods of retting rely on

biological activity of bacteria and fungi that are naturally present in the environment.59

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

 Combination of water and the microorganisms presence in the water results in a complex

and natural enzymatic activity that helps to perform decomposition process.60

Accepted Article
Bacteria

Besides enzyme, white pepper can be produced through bacterial fermentation of pepper

berries. Specific bacteria such as Clostridium and Bacillus able to help in the degradation of

the pectin and cellulosic components of plants. Earlier study found that species of

Clostridia (Cl. butyricum and Cl. felsineum), Bacillus, Pseudomonas and Micrococcus spp.

are proven to macerate fibre straw.115,116 Anaerobic bacteria such as Clostridium felsinium

was found to be able to degrade pectin and cell matrix substances.74 Many microbial

fermentative trials suggest a similar mechanism on peeling of the pepper berry skin through

the action of microbial‟s enzymes activity.

In a study by Zhihao et al.117, pectinase produced by fermentation of Bacillus cereus strain

was found to be beneficial in the peeling of pepper fruit. The results showed that pepper

peel could be removed in 2 days under the conditions of pH 7.5 and temperature of 35℃

with volatile oil and piperine contents of 3.37 mL/100 g and 4.25 g/100 g respectively. The

total number of colony on white pepper produced was 1.0 × 103 cfu/g and sensory

evaluation showed white pepper produced was comparable with high quality white pepper.

This was also supported by Feng30, who stated that the isolation of bacterial Bacillus cereus

strain (WC17) for fermentative production of white pepper showed an excellent activity for

the retting of the green pepper.

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

 Vinod and Kumar57 conducted an extensive study using 45 different bacterial isolates in

which 8 of it were found to be effective in decorticating 60% of black pepper and 100% of

green pepper to white pepper respectively. The most effective strain in producing white
Accepted Article
pepper is Bacillus licheniformis and Bacillus subtilis; which secretes hydrolytic enzymes

such as, cellulase, amylase, xylanase, protease, and pectinase that acts meticulously on the

component of the pericarp.

In a separate study, Vinod, Kumar and Zachariah12 found that bacterium Bacillus

licheniformis (MTCC 5408) from degraded pepper pericarp produced an exo-

polygalacturonase enzyme that is optimally active at pH 8.0 and 60°C. Bacillus subtilis has

also been widely used in the production of white pepper.102 However, there is yet to be any

fermentative study applying Bacillus directly on fresh green pepper for the production of

white pepper although this bacterium is commonly used in the industry for commercial

production of enzymes, antibiotics, biochemicals and consumer products.118,119 In 2004, a

study conducted by Thankamani and Giridhar15 utilised three types of Bacillus strains; B.

mycoides, B. licheniformis and B. brevis to treat black pepper. This research work had

successfully produced white pepper with minimal microbial contamination and excellent

storage stability. Aside from Bacillus sp., other bacteria found to decorticate 60 – 90% of

black pepper into white pepper in 5 days includes Klebsiella pneumonia, Microbacterium

barkeri, Acinetobactor spp. and Acinetobactor baumanii.20

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

 Fungi

Plant cell walls contain about 50% hemicellulose, 25% cellulose and a small amount of

pectin substances, fats and proteins.120 Main plant cell structural components such as
Accepted Article
cellulose provide rigidity and structural independence of the cell walls of the pericarp.34,41

Cellulose is difficult to degrade because the molecule arranged in close tight area with

extensive hydrogen bond namely crystalline cellulose. Many fungi are able to degrade

modified cellulose product but native crystalline cellulose can be decomposed only by

cellulolytic fungi. According to Baldrian & Val121, fungal cellulolytic systems are different

from the complex cellulolytic systems of bacteria. For the degradation of cellulose,

basidiomycetes secrete several hydrolytic enzymes composed of endoglucanase,

cellobiohydrolase and β-glucasidase.121,59 In a study conducted by Yoon and Kim122,

basidiomycete Fomitopsis palustris degraded cellulose crystal from 83 to 78.5% after 14

days of incubation by secreting exoglucanases, endoglucanases and glucosidase enzymes.

Aalia123 managed to decorticate pepper skin within 6 days to produce white pepper from

fresh berries using pectinase isolated from Aspergillus niger. From 9 different strains of

Aspergillus niger, Hung et al.124 found that the B2 strain produced the best pectinase

enzyme effective for pepper shelling. For 5 days, the pectinase activity was 4.82 UI/g. The

decortication effectiveness was 93% after 28 hours for black pepper and 76 hours for green

pepper.

Basidiomycete fungi such as P. chrysosporium was able to degrade lignocellulosic

materials125-127 through extracellular enzymatic systems; the hydrolytic system for

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

 polysaccharide degradation and ligninolytic system for the degradation of lignin.128

Sánchez128 stated that the use of fungi in low cost projects is highly efficient due to the

lignocellulose hydrolysis enzyme mechanism. Hence, the application of fungi to facilitate

Accepted Article
production of white pepper is appropriately reliable. However, it is a must to understand

the biochemical changes that take place during the process may vary according to the

microorganisms involved, temperature and nature of the water, method used and many

other factors.60 Thus, all these factors must be taken into consideration when the

biotechnological retting of pepper berries or black pepper into white pepper is applied to

ensure product safety and quality.

CONCLUSION

In spice world, white pepper is marketed at a higher price compared to black pepper.

However, the production of white pepper using conventional retting method, particularly

the most eminent water retting method shows several disadvantages. These include the

prolong retting period, high production cost, labour intensive as well as unhygienic

practices and malodour formation. Besides water retting, many other methods such as pit

soil, chemical, blanching, boiling and mechanical method were practiced before

biotechnological techniques were introduced to produce white pepper. Few types of

enzymes and microbes has been shown to exhibit huge potential in helping the pepper

retting process. These newer and cleaner bio-processes can contribute in production of

pepper industry as well as providing an environmental friendly and sustainable method.

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

 ACKNOWLEDGMENT

A special acknowledgement to Malaysia of Higher Education and Universiti Kebangsaan

Malaysia (UKM) that financially support the study under research grant
Accepted Article
FRGS/1/2016/WAB01/UKM/02/2.

REFERENCES

1 Risfaheri and Nurdjannah N, Pepper processing - The Indonesian Scenario, in

Black Pepper: Piper nigrum Medicinal and Aromatic Plants - Industrial Profiles,
ed. by Ravindran PN. Harwood Acedemic Publisher, The Netherlands, pp. 365-
377 (2003).
2 Ibrahim MD, Iskandar NANR, Ashaari MF, Zulkharnain A and Hussaini AASA,
Durable hybrid-powered white pepper retting machine integrated with crude
enzymatic solution. J Appl Sci Agric 9: 6–13 (2014).
3 Parthasarathy VA, Sasikumar B, Nair RR and George KJ, Black Pepper: Botany
and Horticulture, in Horticultural Reviews, ed. by Janick J. Wiley & Sons, New
York, pp. 173–266 (2007).
4 Ravindran PN & Kallupurackal JA, Chapter 7: Black pepper, in Handbook of
herbs and spices: Volume 1, 1st ed. Woodhead Publishing Limited, United
Kingdom, pp. 62–110 (2001).
5 Attokaran M, Black Pepper: Natural Food Flavors and Colorants, John Wiley &
Sons, United Kingdom, pp. 87–93 (2017).
6 Najihah I. Enzymatic Retting Using Pectinase Enzyme Produced by Aspergillus
versicolor A6 and Analysis of White Pepper Berries Produced. (2011).
7 Ravindran, P. N. & Kallupurackal, J. A. Chapter 6: Black pepper, in Handbook
of herbs and spices, 2nd ed. Woodhead Publishing Limited, Cambridge, United
Kingdom, pp. 62–110 (2012).
8 Jacob A and Job E, Pepper production and export from India growth and
instability analysis. Int J Curr Res 7: 20388–20391 (2015).
9 Parmar VS, Jain SC, Bisht KS, Jain R, Taneja P, Jha A, Tyagi OD et al.,
Phytochemistry of the genus Piper. Phytochemistry 46: 597–673 (1997).
10 Syahreeny D, Abang B, Zulkharnain AB, Ahmad A and Awanghusaini SB,
Enzymatic retting of Piper nigrum L. using commercial Pectinase (Peelzyme). J
Chem Pharm Sci 8: 2115-2117 (2015).
11 Sephton PS, Spatial arbitrage in sarawak pepper prices. Can J Agric Econ 59:
405–416 (2011).
12 Vinod V, Kumar A and Zachariah J, Purification and characterization of
polygalacturonase from Bacillus Licheniformis Mtcc 5408 - an industrially

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

 important bacterium for white pepper production. Int J Appl Biotechnol Biochem
3: 25–36 (2013).
13 Miloradovich M, Cooking with Herbs and Spices. Dover Publications, New
York, pp. 250-251 (1950).
14 Salzer UJ, The analysis of essential oils and extracts (oleoresins) from
Accepted Article
seasonings--a critical review. CRC Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr 9: 345–373 (1977).
15 Thankamani VL and Giridhar RN, Fermentative production of white pepper
using indigenous bacterial isolates. Biotechnol Bioprocess Eng 9: 435–439
(2004).
16 Buckle KA, Rathnawathie M and Brophy JJ, Compositional differences of black,
green and white pepper (Piper nigrum L.) oil from three cultivars. J Food
Technol 20: 599–613 (1985).
17 Steinhaus M and Schieberle P, Characterization of odorants causing an atypical
aroma in white pepper powder (Piper nigrum L.) based on quantitative
measurements and orthonasal breakthrough thresholds. J Agric Food Chem 53:
6049–6055 (2005).
18 Datta S, Guha S and Sharangi AB, Value Addition in Spice Crops in Value
Addition of Horticultural Crops: Recent Trends and Future Directions. Springer
India, New York, pp. 65–67 (2015).
19 Prabhakaran Nair KP, Agronomy and Economy of Black Pepper and Cardamom:
The ‘king’ and ‘queen’ of Spices. Elsevier, London, pp. 56-86 (2011).
20 Zachariah J, Report of Production of White Pepper Through Fermentation
Technology. (2008).
21 Rathnawathie M and Buckle K A, Effect of berry maturation on some chemical
constituents of black, green and white pepper (Piper nigrum L.) from three
cultivars. J Food Technol 19: 361–367 (1984).
22 Srinivasan K, Black pepper and its pungent principle-piperine: a review of
diverse physiological effects. Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr 47: 735–748 (2007).
23 Wood AB, Barrow ML and James DJ, Piperine determination in pepper (Piper
nigrum L.) and its oleoresins: a reversed-phase high-performance liquid
chromatographic method. Flavour Fragr J 3: 55–64 (1988).
24 Bagheri H, Abdul Manap MY and Solati Z, Antioxidant activity of Piper nigrum
L. essential oil extracted by supercritical CO2 extraction and hydro-distillation.
Talanta 121: 220–228 (2014).
25 Jirovetz L, Buchbauer G, Ngassoum MB and Geissler M, Aroma compound
analysis of Piper nigrum and Piper guineense essential oils from Cameroon using
solid-phase microextraction-gas chromatography, solid-phase microextraction-
gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and olfactometry. J Chromatogr A 976:
265–275 (2002).
26 Jagella T and Grosch W, Flavour and off-flavour compounds of black and white

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

 pepper ( Piper nigrum L. ). Eur Food Res Technol 209: 16–21 (1999).
27 Pruthi JS, Quality assurance in Spices and Spice Products – Modern Methods of
Analysis. Allied Publishers Ltd, New Delhi, pp. 1-576 (1999).
28 Ravindran PN, Introduction in Black Pepper, Harwood Academic. Amsterdam,
the Netherlands, pp. 1–23 (2000).
Accepted Article
29 Mamatha BS, Prakash M, Nagarajan S and Bhat KK, Evaluation of the flavor
quality of pepper (Piper nigrum L.) cultivars by GC-MS, electronic nose and
sensory analysis techniques. J Sens Stud 23: 498–513 (2008).
30 Feng JC, Screening and identification of an indigenous bacterial strain high
active for fermentative production of white pepper (Piper nigrum L.). Adv Mater
Res 781–784: 1489–1494 (2013).
31 NedSpice, Pepper Crop Report 2015 Summary of presentations at ASTA and
ESA Annual Meeting, pp. 1–6 (2015).
32 Mathew AG and Pushpanath S, Indian Spices. Dee Bee Info Publications, India,
pp. 65-69 (2005).
33 Dakek I, To Investigate the Possibility of Threshing Pepper Spikes and
Removing of Pepper Skin by Mechanical Mean. (Universiti Malaysia Sarawak,
2000).
34 Mauseth JD, Botany. Jones & Bartlett Learning, USA, pp. 1-759 (2016).
35 Rosnah S and Chan SC, Enzymatic rettings of green pepper berries for white
pepper production. Int Food Res J 21: 237–245 (2014).
36 Vinod V, Biochemical and molecular characterization of black pepper (Piper
nigrum L.) pericarp degrading bacteria. Acharya Nagarjuna University (2011).
37 Vinod V, Kumar A and Zachariah TJ, Isolation, characterization and
identification of pericarp-degrading bacteria for the production of off odour free
white pepper from fresh berries of Piper nigrum L. J Appl Microbiol 116: 890–
902 (2014).
38 Arthey D and Ashurst PR, Fruit Processing. Springer, US, pp. 211-219 (2012).
39 Timar-Balazsy A and Eastop D, Chemical Principles of Textile Conservation.
Taylor & Francis, New York, pp. 19-36 (2012).
40 Valero D and Serrano M, Postharvest Biology and Technology for Preserving
Fruit Quality. CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida, pp. 20-121 (2010).
41 Pandey NS and Chadha A, A Text Book Of Botany: Plant Anatomy and
Economic Botany. VIKAS Publishing House Pvt Ltd, New Delhi, pp. 77-79
(1993).
42 Scott P, Physiology and Behaviour of Plants. John Wiley & Sons, England, pp.
245-320 (2013).
43 Stiles W, Principles of Plant Physiology. Discovery Publishing House, New
Delhi, India, pp. 31-44 (1994).
44 Yadav PR and Tyagi R, Cell Culture. Discovery Publishing House, New Delhi,

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

 pp. 230-234 (2008).
45 Holland M, Plant Cell Culture in Biotechnology: Plant biotechnology, animal
cell culture, immunobiotechnology, ed. by Chirikjian JG, Kisailus EC and Graf
KM. Jones and Bartlett Publishers, USA, pp. 15–16 (1995).
46 Akin DE, Flax - Structure, Chemistry, Retting and Processing in Industrial
Accepted Article
Applications of Natural Fibres: Structure, Properties and Technical
Applications, ed. by Müssig J. John Wiley & Sons, UK, pp. 89–96 (2010).
47 Collins JF, Treatment and Care of Tree Wounds. U.S. Department of
Agriculture, Washington, United States, pp. 1-22 (1934).
48 Kuhad RC and Singh A, Biotechnology for Environmental Management and
Resource Recovery. Springer, New Delhi, pp. 77-89 (2013).
49 Murthy HVS, Introduction to Textile Fibres. Woodhead Publishing, India, pp.
38-68 (2016).
50 Haque MS, Asaduzzaman M, Akhter F, Hossain MM and Ahmed Z, Impact of
stem-water ratio and separately retting the top and basal parts of jute on the
quality of fibre. Pakistan J Biol Sci 4: 1191–1193 (2001).
51 Tahir MP, Ahmed BA, SaifulAzry SOA and Ahmed Z, Retting process of some
bast plant fibres and its effect on fibre quality: A review. BioResources 6: 5260–
5281 (2011).
52 Pradeepkumar T, Jyothibhaskar SB and Satheesan KN. Management of
Horticultural Crops. New India Publishing Agency, New Delhi, India, pp. 576-
796 (2008).
53 Tainter DR and Grenis AT Spices and Seasonings: A Food Technology
Handbook, 2nd ed. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., USA, pp. 123-131 (2001).
54 Madhusoodanan KJ, Radhakrishnan V, Priyadarsan PM, Kuruvilla KM and
Naidu RA, A cost effective method for the production of white pepper. Spice
India 3: 5–7 (1990).
55 Govindarajan VS, Pepper - Chemistry, technology and quality evaluation. Crit
Rev Food Sci Nutr 9: 115–225 (1977).
56 Steinhaus M and Schieberle P, Role of the fermentation process in off-odorant
formation in white pepper: On-site trial in Thailand. J Agric Food Chem 53:
6056–6060 (2005).
57 Vinod V and Kumar A, Chapter 2: Isolation, functional characterization and
identification of black pepper pericarp degrading bacteria for the production of
white pepper. (2011).
58 Sivakumaar PK, Sukesh K and Joe MM, Textile Microbiology in An
Introduction to Industrial Microbiology. S.Chand & Company Ltd., New Delhi,
pp. 212–213 (2010).
59 Thomas S, Paul SA, Pothan LA and Deepa B, Natural Fibres: Structure,
Properties and Applications in Cellulose Fibers: Bio- and Nano-Polymer

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

 Composites: Green Chemistry and Technology, ed. by Kalia S, Kaith BS and
Kaur I. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, New York, pp. 9–10 (2011).
60 Bhattacharya B, Advance in Jute Agronomy Processing and Marketing. PHI
Learning, New Delhi, pp. 108-123 (2012).
61 Krishnan KB, Doraiswamy I and Chellamani KP, Jute in Bast and Other Plant
Accepted Article
Fibres, ed. by Franck R. Woodhead Publishing Limited, USA, pp. 24–92 (2005).
62 Forbes JC and Watson D. Plants in Agriculture. Cambridge University Press,
New York, USA, pp. 94-277 (1992).
63 Omafuvbe BO and Kolawole DO, Quality assurance of stored pepper (Piper
guineense) using controlled processing methods. Pakistan J Nutr 3: 244–249
(2004).
64 Horne MRL, Bast fibres: hemp cultivation and production in Handbook of
Natural Fibres: Types, Properties and Factors Affecting Breeding and
Cultivation, ed. by Kozłowski RM. Woodhead Publishing Limited, Cambridge,
UK, pp. 125-137 (2012).
65 Batra SK, Other Long Vegetable Fibers: Abaca, Banana, Sisal, Henequen, Flax,
Ramie, Hemp, Sunn and Coir in Handbook of Fiber Chemistry, Second Edition,
Revised and Expanded, ed. by Lewin M and Pearce EM. Marcel Dekker Inc,
New York, USA, pp. 516-564 (1998).
66 Panda H, Handbook on Spices and Condiments Cultivation, Processing and
Extraction. Asia Pacific Business Press Inc., Delhi, pp. 500-519 (2010).
67 Lewis YS, Neelakantan S, Philip T and Nabudiri ES, Production of white pepper
in India. Spices Bull 5: 6–8 (1968).
68 Natarajan CP, Lewis YS, Nambudiri ES and Krishnamurthy MN, Production of
white pepper, pepper oil and oleoresin. Indian Spices 3: 38–41 (1967).
69 Fischer H and Mussig J, Bast Fibres Processing and Uses in Industrial Crops and
Uses, ed. by Singh BP. CAB International, UK, pp. 327–331 (2010).
70 Banik S, Basak MK, Paul D, Nayak P, Sardar P, Sil SC et al., Ribbon retting of
jute - A prospective and ecofriendly method for improvement of fibre quality. In
Crops Prod 17:183–190 (2003).
71 Cochran MJ, Windham TE and Moore B, Feasibility of Industrial Hemp
Production in Arkansas, SP102000, University of Arkansas, pp. 9-14 (2000).
72 Hongqin Y and Chongwen Y, Study on microbe retting of kenaf fibre. Enzyme
Microb Technol 40:1806–1809 (2007).
73 Rome. Improved retting and extraction of jute project findings and
recommendation 1998. http://www.fao.org/docrep/field/381307.htm [25
September 2017].
74 Van Sumere CF, Retting of flax with special reference to enzyme retting in The
Biology and Processing of Flax, ed. by Sharma HSS and Van Sumere CF.
Publications Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom, pp.157–178 (1992).

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

 75 Paulus AD, Harvesting, Processing, Drying and Storage of Pepper. Newspaper of
Sunday Eastern Times. pp. 1–4 (2009).
76 Lu SS, Huang XB and Chen JH, Study on anaerobic microbe retting of kenaf in
China. J China Text Univ 25: 107–110 (1999).
77 Verghese J, White pepper - the „topless‟ Piper nigrum L. berries. Spices India 26:
Accepted Article
19–24 (1989).
78 Joshi DG, White pepper production. Indian Patent 70. (1962).
79 Lewis YS, Important spice from South East Asia cultivation and technology.
Indian Food Pack 36: 62–71 (1982).
80 Vinod V, Chapter 1 General Introduction and outline of the thesis. (2011).
81 Omanakutty M, White pepper. Spice India 19: 34-36 (2006).
82 Ramesh MN, Food Preservation by Heat Treatment in Handbook of Food
Preservation ed. by Rahman MS. Marcel Dekker Inc., New York. pp. 95–170
(1999).
83 Nybe EV, Raj NM and Peter KV, Spices. New India Publishing Agency, New
Delhi, India, pp. 11-42 (2007).
84 Purseglove JW, Brown EG, Green CL and Robbinsm SRJ, Spices. Longman,
London, pp. 1-99 (1981).
85 Akio S and Masayuki A, Pepper Hull-Containing Spice. European Patent
JP20080071851 (2009).
86 Risfaheri and Hidayat T, Effect of treatments prior to sun drying on black pepper
quality. Int Pepper News Bulletion 18: 9–12 (1994).
87 Azam Ali, S. Report of Pepper Processing. pp. 1-8 (2007).
88 Risfaheri. Small holder livelihood enhancement and income generation via
improvement of pepper production, processing, value adding, marketing systems
and enterprise diversification. Report of TCDC Engineering Con- sultant. FAO
Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, Bangkok, pp. 46. (2009).
89 Pruthi JS, Advances in sun/solar drying and dehydration of pepper (Piper nigrum
L.). Int Pepper News Bulletion 16: 6–17 (1992).
90 Deng L, Development and application of small pepper peeling washing unit.
Trop Agric Eng 4:18–20 (2004).
91 Jusoh A and Salih J, Merekabentuk dan menilai mesin pelerai dan penyisih lada.
J Sci Educ Technol 4: 239–249 (1996).
92 Manay NS and Shadaksharaswamy M, Food: Facts And Principles. New Age
International Publishers, New Delhi, India, pp. 324-325 (2001).
93 Nguyen TNL Study on cellulase synthesis by fungi (Aspergillus Oryzae and
Pichia Citrinum) for white pepper production. Hochiminh City International
University (2013).
94 Hùng TN, Nhu TTN and Truong NL, To investigate the factors involves in black
pepper decortication (Piper nigrum L.). J Thu Dau Mot Univ 6: 30–34 (2015).

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

 95 Meyabadi F and Dadashian H, Optimization of enzymatic hydrolysis of waste
cotton fibers for nanoparticles production using response surface methodology.
Fibers Polym 13: 313–321 (2012).
96 Suutarinen M, Mustranta A, Autio K, Salmenkallio-Marttila M, Ahvenainen R,
Buchert J, The potential of enzymatic peeling of vegetables. J Sci Food Agric 83:
Accepted Article
1556–1564 (2003).
97 Milos K, Branco AP and Urlaub R, Enzymatic method for producing white
pepper. European Patent WO2006EP07836 (2007).
98 Gopinathan KM and Manilal VB, Pectinolytic decortication of pepper (Piper
nigrum L.). J Food Sci Technol 41: 74–77 (2004).
99 Liu TJ and Yong ST, Pepper peeling strain screening pectinase. Guangdong
Agric Sci 9:194–195 (2009).
100 Freese S and Binnig R, Enzymic extraction of spice aromas. Gordian 93: 171–
176 (1993).
101 Rendlen M, Schweiggert U, Schieber A and Carle R, Enzyme-assisted
decortication of pepper (Piper nigrum L.) Thai Patent No. 105129 (2005).
102 Thankamony A, Menon N, Omanakuttyamma M, Sreedharan VP and Narayanan
CS, Bacterial removal of skin from pepper. Spice India 12: 10–11 (1999).
103 Namiki T, Nakahara R and Abe M, Method for producing white pepper and
white pepper. European Patent WO2007JP60877 (2007).
104 Charalampopoulos D and Rastall RA, Prebiotics and Probiotics Science and
Technology, Springer, United Kingdom, pp. 575-576 (2009).
105 Toker I and Bayindirli A, Enzymatic peeling of apricots, nectarines and peaches.
Leb und-Technologie 36: 215–125 (2003).
106 Castelein J and Verachtert H, Coffee Fermentation in Biotechnology; A
Comprehensive Treatise ed. by Rehm HJ and Reed G. Verlag Chemie, Florida,
pp. 587–598 (1983).
107 Kim SM and Lim ST, Enhanced antioxidant activity of rice bran extract by
carbohydrase treatment. J Cereal Sci 68: 116–121 (2016).
108 Kim JH, Lee HJ, Park Y, Ra KS, Shin KS, Yu K et al., Mucilage removal from
cactus cladodes (Opuntia humifusa Raf.) by enzymatic treatment to improve
extraction efficiency and radical scavenging activity. LWT - Food Sci Technol
51: 337–342 (2013).
109 Mrabet A, Guillermo RG, Fátima RS, Hammadi H, Rocío RA, Rafael GB et al.,
Enzymatic conversion of date fruit fiber concentrates into a new product enriched
in antioxidant soluble fiber. LWT - Food Sci Technol 75: 727–734 (2017).
110 Shamala TR, Manonmani H, Venkateswaran G, Sowbhagya HB, Sampathu SR,
Joseph R et al., An enzymatic process for the preparation of spice oil. Australian
Patent AU 2003300708 A1 (2005).
111 Sowbhagya HB, Purnima KT, Florence SP, Appu Rao AG and Srinivas P,

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

 Evaluation of enzyme-assisted extraction on quality of garlic volatile oil. Food
Chem 113: 1234–1238 (2009).
112 Xu F, Methods for making popcorn kernels with improved flake production.
United States Patent 09/633,311 (2003).
113 Baby KC and Ranganathan TV, Effect of enzyme pretreatment on yield and
Accepted Article
quality of fresh green chilli (Capsicum annuum L) oleoresin and its major
capsaicinoids. Biocatal Agric Biotechnol 7:95–101 (2016).
114 Huynh N, Hai T and Phu LH, Study on White Peppercorn Production by
Viscozyme ® _ L And Pectinex Ultra ® Sp _ L. Hochiminh City International
University (2013).
115 Kashyap DR, Vohra PK, Chopra S and Tewari R, Applications of pectinases in
the commercial sector: A review. Bioresour Technol 77:215–227 (2001).
116 Tamburini E, Leon AG, Perito B and Mastromei G, Characterization of bacterial
pectinolytic strains involved in the water retting process. Environ Microbiol
5:730–736 (2003).
117 Zhihao D, Hu ZY, Jiancheng P, Hui X, Ai H and Chao W, Screening,
identification and preliminary application of high efficient dehydration bacteria
from pepper. China Condiment 4: 51–55 (2011).
118 Harwood CR, Bacillus subtilis and its relatives: molecular biological and
industrial workhorses. Trends Biotechnol 10: 247–256 (1992).
119 Rey MW, Ramaiya P, Nelson BA, Karpin SDB, Zaretsky EJ, Tang M et al.,
Complete genome sequence of the industrial bacterium Bacillus licheniformis
and comparisons with closely related Bacillus species. Genome Biol 5:R77.1-
R77.12 (2004).
120 Street HE and Cockburn W, Plant Metabolism. Pergamon Press, New York, pp.
50-51 (2014).
121 Baldrian P and Val V, Degradation of cellulose by basidiomycetous fungi. FEMS
Microbiol Rev 32:501–521 (2008).
122 Yoon JJ and Kim YK, Degradation of crystalline cellulose by the brown-rot
basidiomycete Fomitopsis palustris. J Microbiol 43:487–492 (2005).
123 Aalia MRM, Production And Trial Enzymatic Retting Using Pectinase
Preparation Produced By Aspergillus Niger Umas Fm1 Using Solid Substrate
Fermentation. UNIMAS (2012).
124 Hung TN, Dung NA, Thanh MTNL and Nhu TTN, The study of Pectinase from
Aspergillus niger cultivates on a semi-solid medium containing pomelo pulp to
improve the removal efficiency of pepper. J Thu Dau Mot Univ 30: 82–89
(2016).
125 Bennett JW, Wunch KG and Faison BD, Use of fungi in biodegradation in
Manual of Environmental Microbiology ed. by Hurst CJ. AMS Press,
Washington DC, pp. 960–971 (2002).

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

 126 Have R and Teunissen PJM, Oxidative mechanisms involved in lignin
degradation by white-rot fungi. Chem Rev 101: 3397–3414 (2001).
127 Rabinovich ML, Bolobova AV and Vasil‟chenko LG, Fungal decomposition of
natural aromatic structures and xenobiotics: a review. Appl Biochem Microbiol
40:1–17 (2004).
Accepted Article
128 Sánchez C, Lignocellulosic residues: Biodegradation and bioconversion by fungi.
Biotechnol Adv 27:185–194 (2009).

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

 Table 1: Quality parameter for whole white pepper by International Pepper Community (IPC)

White pepper
(maximum/minimum value)
Quality parameter
IPC WP-2
IPC WP-1
i. Macro
Accepted Article
Min 600 Min 600
Bulk Density (g/l)
Moisture (% volume/weight) Max 13 Max 15
Light Berries/Corns (% weight) Max 1 Max 2
Extraneous Matter (% weight) Max 1 Max 2
Black Berries/Corns (% weight) Max 1 Max 2
Mouldy Berries/Corns (%
Max 1 Max 3
weight)
Insect Defiled Berries/Corns
Max 1 Max 2
(mg/lb)
Whole Insects  Less than 2 numbers in each sub sample
dead or alive (per count)  Not more than 5 numbers in total sub samples
Mammalian or/and other excreta  Free of any visible mammalian or/and other
(count) excreta

ii. Microbiological

Salmonella (detection / 25g) Negative Negative

**Note:

IPC WP-1 are grades of pepper which has been further processed of cleaning processes

including sieving, cycloning, destining, washing and mechanical drying.

IPC WP-2 are grades of pepper which has been partially processed of basic cleaning

processes like sieving and winnowing.

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

 Table 2: Chemical parameter for white pepper by Vietnam Standard (TCVN 7037:2002)

Requirements
Chemical parameter
Semi processed/processed Ground
Accepted Article
Moisture (%) Max 13.0 Max 12.5

Total ash (% dry weight) Max 3.5 Max 3.5

Non-volatile extract (% dry weight) Min 6.5 Min 6.5

Volatile oil (% dry weight, ml/100g) Min 1.0 Min 0.7*

Piperine (% dry weight) Min 4.0 Min 4.0

Non-volatile ash in acid (% dry weight) - Max 0.3

Fibre (Non-dissolve index, % dry - Min 6.5

weight)

*Volatile oil is specified after grinding

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

 Table 3: Chemical quality of white pepper in some selected cultivars
(expressed as % dry weight)
Cultivar Piperine (%) Oleoresin (%) Essential oil (%)

Panniyur-1 3.60 8.6 2.4

Valiakaniakadan 3.50 7.7 2.6

Accepted Article
Vadakkan 3.29 9.1 2.0

Kuruvilanchy 3.15 9.7 3.2

Karimunda 2.93 7.8 2.5

Arakulamunda 3.47 10.0 2.9

Vattamunda 5.85 6.8 2.6

Ottaplakkal 4.50 7.5 2.3

Kuthiravally 3.20 6.3 2.5

Thevanmundi 2.70 6.4 2.2

Kaniakadan 4.60 10.3 2.0

Neelamundi 2.70 8.3 2.7

Balankotta 2.80 9.4 2.7

Kurielmudi 3.50 8.5 2.8

Narayakodi 4.60 9.0 2.8

Source: Parthasarathy, Sasikumar, Nair and George3

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

 Figure 1: World pepper production from 2000 to 2016

WORLD PEPPER PRODUCTION

160,000

140,000 Brazil
Pepper production (Mt)

120,000 China
Accepted Article
100,000 India
Indonesia
80,000
Malaysia
60,000
Sri Lanka
40,000
Vietnam
20,000
Thailand
0
2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016
Years

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

 Table 4: Global production and export (tons) of white pepper and black pepper in 2014 – 2015

White pepper Black pepper Overall Overall

Country
Production Export Production Export production exports

Vietnam 23,500 22,722 131,500 132,278 155,000 155,000

Accepted Article
China 35,000 3,000 2,000 0 37,000 3,000

Indonesia 18,000 13,453 42,000 32,568 60,000 46,021

Malaysia 3,000 2,887 20,000 12,113 23,000 15,000

Brazil 2,000 2,000 37,000 31,050 39,000 33,050

India N/A N/A 45,000 10,000 45,000 10,000

Sri Lanka N/A N/A 24,000 17,500 24,000 17,500

Others N/A N/A 26,000 10,200 26,000 10,200

Total 81,500 44,062 327,500 245,709 409,000 289,771

Source: Pepper Crop Report31

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Accepted Article

Figure 2: Cross section of the pepper berry

Source: Redrawn from Dakek33 and Attokaran5

Figure 3: Machine to separate pepper berries from its stalk.

Source: Redrawn from Jusoh and Salih91

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

 Table 5: The use of various enzyme to produce white pepper

Enzyme used Purposes Reference

Pectinase Skin removal of pepper berries Milos, Branco &
Urlaub97
Green pepper decortication and Gopinathan &
black pepper decortication Manilal98
Enzymatic treatment on black Najihah6
Accepted Article
pepper

Pepper peeling strain screening Liu and Yong99

pectinase
Cellulolytic enzyme The extraction of oleoresins and Freese & Binnig 100
Pectinolytic enzyme decortication of green pepper Rendlen et al.101
Thankamony et al.102
Cellulase, Hemicellulase, Enzymatic treatment on fresh Namiki, Nakahara &
Pectinase, Protopectinase pepper seeds, blanched pepper Abe103
seeds, frozen pepper seeds or dried
pepper seeds
Peelzyme Peeling pepper berries Syahreeny et al.10
(pectinase, hemicellulase,
cellulase, arabinose)
Viscozyme (arabanase, Enzymatic retting on fresh pepper Rosnah & Chan35
cellulase, β-glucanase, berries
hemicellulase, xylanase)
Celluclast
(cellulase from
Trichoderma reesei)

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.