Perennial woody vine , 4 m height growing on supporting trees , poles , or trellises . Leaves , alternate , entire , 5 - 10 cm long , 3 - 6 cm broad . Flowers small , bisexual or unisexual , produced on pendulous spikes 4 - 8 cm long at leaf nodes ,spikes lengthening to 7 - 15 cm as the fruit matures . 4 fused carpels surrounded by scale - like bracts , but there is no calyx or corolla . Fruit known as a peppercorn when dried , is a small drupe five millimetres in diameter , dark red when fully mature , containing single seed .

English - Black pepper

Hindi - Kali mirch

Malayalam - kurumulaku

Tamil - Kurumilagu

Kannada - Karimenasu

* It has antibacterial , anticancerous , antipyretic activity (Srinivasan, 2009)

* It has antidiarrheal , antimutagenic , anti-inflammatory , antifungal , insecticidal activities (Senthil kumar et al., 2017;Sivakumar, 2019;Angelin et al., 2019) .

* The fruits of black pepper can be beneficial during gastritis .

* Helps in treating respiratory diseases .

* Prevents constipation .

* Aids in weight loss .