Pepper

Pepper oil smells like the spice with the heat removed, warm and dry rather than sharp. Piperine, the compound that makes pepper burn your tongue, is too heavy to distil and stays in the corn. What comes over is beta-caryophyllene and a set of pine-like compounds. In a randomised trial in 105 stroke patients with swallowing trouble, smelling black pepper oil for a minute made them swallow faster and more often.^[1] Brain imaging in the same work showed the smell waking the parts of the cortex that control swallowing.^[1]

Black Pepper

Piper nigrum

Also Known As: Pepper, Peppercorn
Family: Spice
Perfumery Note: Middle
Intensity: Strong
Extraction: Steam Distillation
Plant Parts: Dried berries
Origins: India, Madagascar, Sri Lanka
Effect: Focus & Mental Clarity, Energy & Uplifting
Aroma: Spicy, Warm, Sharp
Applications: Diffusing & Inhalation, Massage & Body, Perfumery & Fragrance Making, Cooking & Flavouring
Price: $$$$While the spice is common, the oil yield is relatively low compared to the weight of the dried peppercorns

Black pepper oil is distilled from the same dried corns as the spice, but the heat does not come with it. Piperine stays behind, so what you get is warm and woody, led by beta-caryophyllene at up to a third of the oil. In a randomised trial of 105 stroke patients, one minute of smelling the oil shortened how long they took to swallow.^[1] Beta-caryophyllene itself acts on a cannabinoid receptor and eased pain in mice.^[2] That is an animal finding about one compound, not a painkiller you can buy.

Pink Pepper

Schinus terebinthifolius

Also Known As: Brazilian Pepper, Pink Peppercorn, Rose Pepper, Florida Holly
Family: Spice
Perfumery Note: Top
Intensity: Medium
Extraction: Steam Distillation
Plant Parts: Berries
Origins: Brazil, Reunion Island, Madagascar, United States
Effect: Energy & Uplifting, Grounding & Centering
Aroma: Warm, Spicy, Fresh, Fruity, Woody
Applications: Diffusing & Inhalation, Skincare, Massage & Body, Perfumery & Fragrance Making
Price: $$$$Schinus terebinthifolius is considered invasive in Florida and parts of the tropics; abundant berry supply and high oil yield per kilogram make this one of the more accessible specialty oils

Pink pepper is not pepper, but berries from a Brazilian tree in the cashew family. It smells bright and fruity with a resinous edge, and none of the heat of real pepper. Alpha-pinene and sabinene lead, which is why it reads closer to pink peppercorn than to black. The research on it is agricultural rather than medical: it killed parasites and bacteria that infect farmed fish and shrimp.^[3] It also stopped moulds spoiling stored beans.^[4]

Pepper Green

Piper nigrum

Also Known As: Green Pepper, Green Peppercorn
Family: Spice
Perfumery Note: Middle
Intensity: Medium
Extraction: Steam Distillation
Plant Parts: Unripe (green) berries
Origins: India, Madagascar, Vietnam
Effect: Focus & Mental Clarity, Energy & Uplifting
Aroma: Spicy, Green, Fresh, Sharp
Applications: Diffusing & Inhalation, Massage & Body, Perfumery & Fragrance Making, Cooking & Flavouring
Price: $$$$Harvested unripe and processed quickly to preserve its brighter monoterpene profile; more labor-intensive than sun-dried black pepper

Green pepper oil comes from unripe berries, picked before they are dried and fermented into black pepper. That timing changes the chemistry: it carries three times as many oxygenated compounds as black pepper oil.^[5] The result is fresher and greener, with more limonene and pinene lifting it.^[5] Beta-caryophyllene is still there, and on its own it acts on a cannabinoid receptor and reduced pain in mice.^[2] That is a compound in a mouse, not a use for the oil.

Essential Nose

Pepper

Black Pepper

Pink Pepper

Pepper Green

References