Peper Rood

Bell pepper, also known as sweet pepper, is one of the most commonly employed chili peppers in the Capsicum annuum family. Sweet peppers are fruit pods on the capsicum plant grown for their subtle hotness yet sweet, delicate peppery flavor they extend to the recipes. Botanically, it is a small perennial shrub in the nightshade or Solanaceae family, in the genus, capsicum. Scientific name: Capsicum annuum L.

Unlike their fellow capsicum members, sweet peppers have characteristic bell shape with crunchy, thick fleshy texture. On comparison with fellow chili-pepper members, bell (sweet) peppers feature characteristically less pungency that ranges from zero to very minimal hotness. For the same reasons, they generally treated like any other common vegetables instead of spice in the cuisine.

Peppers are native to Mexico and other Central American region from where they spread to the rest of the world by Spanish and Portuguese explorers during 16th and 17th centuries. Today, they grown widely in many parts of the world as an important commercial crop. As in other chili pepper varieties, bell peppers too have several cultivar types. However, the plant type and fruit pod (with 3-5 lobes) are a common features in almost all cultivars.

In structure, sweet pepper features blocky, cube like outer flesh enclosing numerous tiny, white, or cream colored, circular and flat seeds. The seeds are actually clinging on to the central core (placenta). To harvest, peppers are handpicked at different stages of maturity depending upon the preferences of local populations.

All varieties of unripe peppers feature green color pods, irrespective of their final destined color. As the fruit matures, it gradually acquires its true genetic color; orange, red, purple, yellow, etc.