Abstract
Wild pepper, Piper umbellatum L. is traditionally consumed as a leafy vegetable by the indigenous Kenyah tribesmen of Belaga, Sarawak, Malaysia. The shoots are normally harvested from secondary forest floors. The present study was carried out to determine the morphological and nutritional characteristics of P. umbellatum, i.e., proximate, mineral, total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TFC), vitamin C, and anti-nutrients, i.e., oxalate and phytate. The results showed that P. umbellatum possesses an ovate, alternate, entire and non-glandular trichome on its leaf surface. The inflorescence comprises an oblongoid spike attached to a peduncle and the ripened berries were orange and red in color. The results also revealed that the leaves of P. umbellatum had a high moisture content (63.27%), other recorded nutrient values were ash (8.62%), crude fiber (19.32%), K (1280.20 mg/100 g), Ca (570.60 mg/100 g), Mg (323.80 mg/100 g) and P (291.14 mg/100 g), TPC (510.63 mg/100 g), TFC (377.82 mg/100 g) and phytate (411.67 mg/100 g). Thus the consumption of the P. umbellatum as a leafy vegetable supplies a good dose of various essential nutrients.
Highlights
The Piperaceae family is widely distributed in tropical regions and comprises over 1000 species (Parthasarathy et al, 2006)
The results revealed that the leaves of P. umbellatum had a high moisture content (63.27%), other recorded nutrient values were ash (8.62%), crude fiber (19.32%), K (1280.20 mg/100 g), Ca (570.60 mg/100 g), Mg (323.80 mg/100 g) and P (291.14 mg/100 g), total phenolic content (TPC) (510.63 mg/100 g), total flavonoid content (TFC) (377.82 mg/100 g) and phytate (411.67 mg/100 g)
The leaves of Piper umbellatum grown in Malaysia are of ovate shape for the entire margin
Summary
The Piperaceae family is widely distributed in tropical regions and comprises over 1000 species (Parthasarathy et al, 2006). Pothomorphe umbellata (L.) Miq., Lepianthes umbellata (L.) Raf., Heckeria umbellata (L.) Kunth and Peperomia umbellata (L.) Kunth) is a species which grows extensively in Malaysian rainforests. This species is known by several common names such as umbelled pepper, cowfoot, Segumbar urat (Peninsular Malaysia), Lemba (Moluccas), Capeba or pariparoba (Brazil), Bumbu, Domboo, Tombo and Ucheng-ucheng (Java) (Tawan et al, 2002; Mensah et al, 2013; da Silva et al, 2014). The importance of P. umbellatum as a medicinal plant has been described in various studies. The plants been used by witchdoctors in Cameroon (Agbor et al, 2005; Roersch et al, 2010), as a fragrance in Ecuador (Pohle & Reinhardt, 2004; Roersch et al, 2010), and as fish bait in Ghana (Roersch et al, 2010)
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