Plants · Spices
Black pepper (Piper nigrum L.): seed oil and ISO 3061
Piper nigrum L.
- Family
- Piperaceae
- ISO standard
- ISO 3061:2008
Species
| Binomial | Piper nigrum |
|---|---|
| Accepted name | Piper nigrum L. |
| WCVP status | accepted |
| Family | Piperaceae |
| IPNI identifier | urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:682369-1 |
| ISO standard | ISO 3061:2008 |
Source: Govaerts R. (ed.), World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP), Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, accessed on 21/09/2026.
Source: ISO 3061:2008.
Key facts
- In WCVP, Piper nigrum L. is an accepted species name in the family Piperaceae.
- The ISO catalogue lists ISO 3061:2008, “Oil of black pepper (Piper nigrum L.)”, and a withdrawn 1979 edition.
- Nurjanah et al. (2025) hydrodistilled seed grown in Muntok, Indonesia, for 4 h.
- In that seed oil, they give β‐caryophyllene at 37.42 %, limonene at 13.35 % and δ‐3‐carene at 11.49 %.
- Langa Massango et al. (2025) distilled peppercorns bought in São Paulo, Brazil, in a Clevenger apparatus after an ultrasonic pre-treatment.
This page brings together two studies of the essential oil of Piper nigrum L. and the ISO 3061 entries of the ISO catalogue. The seed oil of Nurjanah et al. (2025) is the only one on this page with composition figures. The two studies are set out separately; they are neither averaged nor compared.
How is the plant named?
According to the World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP, Kew), in the extract read on 02/11/2026, Piper nigrum L. is a name of rank “Species” with status “Accepted”. It is placed in the family Piperaceae (identifier 2569664).
What does the seed oil contain?
Which compounds are reported in the seed oil?
Nurjanah et al. (2025) give the following contents for the seed essential oil. They place δ‐3‐carene among the three most important components of that oil.
| Compound | Seed essential oil (%) |
|---|---|
| β‐caryophyllene | 37.42 |
| limonene | 13.35 |
| δ‐3‐carene | 11.49 |
What physical characteristics are given for the seed oil?
Table 1 of Nurjanah et al. (2025) gives these characteristics for the seed essential oil (“Seed EO”). For the optical rotation, the column header carries a superscript “o” as its unit.
| Characteristic (table 1) | Seed essential oil |
|---|---|
| Appearance | “Clear liquid” |
| Colour | “Yellow” |
| Odour | “Pepper like” |
| Refractive index (20 °C) | 1.564 |
| “Optical rotation” | −7.48 |
| “Solubility on alcohol (95% at 20°C)” | “1:1” |
How were the oils analysed?
Each row gives the chromatography conditions as each study reports them.
| Study and technique | Instrument and column | Carrier gas and injection | Oven programme | Other conditions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nurjanah et al. (2025), GC–MS | Agilent 7890 with HP‐INNOWAX capillary column (30 m × 0.25 mm, film 0.25 μm) and Agilent 5975A mass spectrometer | helium, 0.6 mL/min; 1 μL of sample diluted with ethyl acetate | 60 °C (held 0 min), 2 °C/min to 150 °C (held 1 min), 20 °C/min to 210 °C (held 10 min) | ionization voltage 70 eV |
| Langa Massango et al. (2025), GC-MS | GCMS-QP2010 (Shimadzu) with AOC-20i automatic injector; SH-Rtx-5MS column (30 m × 0.25 mm × 0.25 µm), 5 % phenyl and 95 % dimethylpolysiloxane | helium (purity 99.999 %), 1.17 mL min−1; 1 µL diluted in ethanol, split ratio 1:100 | 50 °C to 150 °C at 3 °C min−1, held 10 min, then 20 °C min−1 to 260 °C, held 10 min; total 59.83 min | injector 220 °C, detector interface 300 °C, ion source 230 °C; SCAN mode, electron impact at 70 eV, 35 to 500 m/z |
| Langa Massango et al. (2025), GC-FID | GC-2014 (Shimadzu) with flame ionization detector; DB-5 column (30 m × 0.25 mm × 0.25 μm) | nitrogen (99.999 %), 1.3 mL min−1; split ratio 1:50 | 45 °C (2 min), then 30 °C min−1 to 260 °C | injector 240 °C, detector 280 °C; total analysis time 13.83 min |
Nurjanah et al. (2025) identify the essential oil components by comparison with the n‐alkane series (C8–C30) under the same conditions.
Langa Massango et al. (2025) identified the major compounds by GC-MS. They compared retention indices, obtained with hydrocarbon standards (C7–C40), with the NIST-14 library and with literature data. The relative percentage of each compound is the ratio of its peak area to the total area of all constituents of the sample.
For the optimization, the same authors diluted the oils from ultrasound-pretreated material 1000-fold in ethanol. They identified compounds by comparing retention times with those of analytical standards. β-pinene and limonene were measured against calibration curves built with standard solutions from 10 to 200 mg L−1.
How are the oils obtained?
Which material did the studies use?
According to Nurjanah et al. (2025), the material included black pepper seed grown, harvested and processed in Muntok, Bangka Belitung (Indonesia). The seeds were picked, dried and ground before the essential oil was extracted.
According to Langa Massango et al. (2025), the black pepper studied was bought from a company in São Paulo (Brazil). All experiments used samples from the same batch (“same batch”). The samples were kept in woven polypropylene bags at room temperature (approximately 25 °C) until the experiments began. The authors state that this storage did not compromise grain quality.
How was the seed oil distilled?
Nurjanah et al. (2025) extracted the essential oils by hydrodistillation for 4 h. They collected the oils in a vial containing anhydrous sodium sulfate to remove water, and stored them at 4 °C until analysis.
How were the peppercorns distilled after ultrasound?
In section 2.10 of Langa Massango et al. (2025), 60 g of black peppercorns and 500 mL of distilled water were placed in a 1000 mL round-bottom flask. The flask was connected to a Clevenger apparatus and heated by a heating mantle; three replicates were performed for each treatment. This sentence follows the one describing the peppercorns exposed to ozone. An ultrasonic pre-treatment of 20 min was applied to all samples, with the stated aim of improving extraction efficiency.
The extraction time was counted from the condensation and collection of the first drop of essential oil. After extraction, the oil from these ultrasound-pretreated samples was collected and stored at 4 °C.
Which ISO standards name black pepper oil?
The ISO catalogue, ICS class 71.100.60, was read in a web archive copy of 19 March 2026.
| Entry | Title | Status | Stage | Committee |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ISO 3061:1979 | “Oil of black pepper” | “[Withdrawn]” | 95.99 | ISO/TC 54 |
| ISO 3061:2008 | “Oil of black pepper (Piper nigrum L.)” | — | 90.93 | ISO/TC 54 |
See also: Elettaria cardamomum, Syzygium aromaticum bud oil, ultrasonic extraction, hydrodistillation, drops ↔ ml converter.
References
- Govaerts R. (ed.), World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP), Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew — https://sftp.kew.org/pub/data-repositories/WCVP/wcvp.zip
- International Organization for Standardization (ISO), online catalogue, ICS 71.100.60 « Essential oils », archived copy of 19/03/2026 (Internet Archive) — https://web.archive.org/web/20260319152944id_/https://www.iso.org/ics/71.100.60/x/
- Nurjanah S., Suryadi E., Thoriq A., Ainina N., Mardawati E., Ramadhan M.G., Rosmiati R., Akili A.W.R., Permadi N., Julaeha E., « Essential Oils From Different Parts of Piper nigrum L.: Chemical Composition, Antibacterial, and Antioxidant Activities », Food Science & Nutrition 2025;13(11):e71205, doi:10.1002/fsn3.71205 — https://www.ebi.ac.uk/europepmc/webservices/rest/PMC12618210/fullTextXML
- Langa Massango H.D.G.L., Faroni L.R.D., Vanetti M.C.D., de Alencar E.R., Silva M.V.D.A., Rodrigues A.A.Z., Cecon P.R., Magalhães C.G., Teixeira D.A., Rossi L.E., « Efficiency of Ozone Applied in Flow and at Low Pressures in the Inactivation of Salmonella in Black Peppercorns (Piper nigrum L.) and the Effects of Ozone Treatment on Grain Quality and Essential Oil Composition », Foods 2025;14(13):2215, doi:10.3390/foods14132215 — https://www.ebi.ac.uk/europepmc/webservices/rest/PMC12249066/fullTextXML