Endemic to Madagascar, the wild pepper of voatsiperifery became popular some 15 years ago. Nowadays it is considered to be one of the best peppers in the world, with a uniquely subtle taste, more flavour and scent, and less pungency than other peppers. Once dried, its peppercorns give off woody, earthy and fruity aromas. When fresh, its flavours and scents are even more balanced.
Celebrity chefs rave about its “complex, tangy and spicy nose”. It goes particularly well with pigeon, and also with rhubarb and grapefruit. Voatsiperifery is a perfect illustration of the “cultural ecosystem services” provided by Madagascar’s natural forests and their biodiversity.
While the pepper does not contribute to food security, it is a source of pleasure for gourmets worldwide and, therefore, of income for people living on the fringes of forests. This is particularly the case during during the “hunger gap”, the period between two harvests, in which people have hardly anything to eat as the previous crop has been used up and the next is not yet available.
Voatsiperifery then is an ambassador for Madagascar. It is the only spice exported from the country that is endemic to the main island. This wild pepper has small round or oval peppercorns that grow in clusters on long lianas in the natural forests of eastern Madagascar, from the coast to the central highlands. It is dioecious, meaning that male and female flowers grow on separate plants.
In Malagasy, voatsiperifery is a combination of voa (“fruit”), and tsiperifery, (“which makes wounds disappear”). This name stems from its medicinal use to heal wounds and refers to the peppercorns themselves, while tsiperifery refers to the plant. The first written references to the tsiperifery vine date back to colonial times. Archives from the 19th and early 20th centuries describe a round pepper used locally for medicinal purposes, to treat venereal diseases and colic and to blacken teeth as part of local rituals. There are still specimens collected by the first European explorers at the Muséum national d’histoire naturelle in Paris.
People living around forests traditionally pick and use tsiperifery for its culinary and medicinal properties, but also in their spiritual practice. The leaves are used in rituals, to protect against lightning and prevent rain from falling. The stems and roots serve as infusions to protect one against evil. In the area of medicine, it is used to prevent scarring, and treat respiratory, venereal, skin diseases and sexual problems.
Voatsiperifery was “discovered” between 2004 and 2010 by two “spice hunters”, Olivier Roellinger and Gérard Vives. Since 2010, demand has rocketed and triggered a rush toward this wild pepper. Its exploitation relies on existing commercial routes: pickers first go deep into the forest and then sell their harvest to middlemen, who go on to sell them on to other economic players who process, bag and export them. The latter capture the major share of the profits from the value chain.
But the wild pepper is tricky to pick. In natural forests, the vines produce fruit very high up in the canopy. Ripping down the fruiting vine or felling the tree it is growing on is the simplest solution. Voatsiperifery has only recently been discovered but is already under threat of extinction and is contributing to the destruction of its habitat... From a freely accessible wild vine, it has become an argument in favour of forest conservation.
This essay originally appeared on The Conversation and has been republished here under the Creative Commons Licence.
