WILD PEPPER --Piper sarmentosum--

AKA Lolot Pepper or sometimes Wild Betel, though this isn't the type that is most commonly paired with the palm nut for Betel chewers. Wonderful edible and medicinal leaf vegetable with a smoky, peppery taste, used in southeast Asian cuisine from China, to Malaysia, Vietnam, and Thailand, in salads, as the outer wrap of popular meat dumplings the way grape leaves are used in Mediterranean food, and mixed into rice for flavoring. Used long term in traditional Asian medicine, the leaves boiled in water and taken to treat coughs, flu and malarial fever. Recent chemical analysis has shown the leaves contain the antioxidant naringenin. Amides from P. sarmentosum fruit have been shown to have anti-tuberculosis and anti-plasmodial activities. It was tested against various bacteria species such as Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Vibrio cholerae and Streptococcus pneumoniae. Grows around 2' tall, shade tolerant, likes plenty of water.