Zanthoxylum bungeanum seed

LATIN NAME: Zanthoxylum bungeanum

COMMON NAME: Sichuan Pepper

The Sichuan pepper is a handsome, upright, spiny, deciduous shrub or small tree of the warm hills, and its fine, pinnate leaves of the many oval leaflets and its small, inconspicuous, greenish flowers, followed by the small, round, reddish-brown capsules of the glossy, black seeds, have made it a famous and much-prized spice plant of the region. It grows as an upright, spiny, many-branched, deciduous shrub or small tree, reaching up to five metres or so, with the upright, branching, spiny stems bearing the alternate, pinnate leaves of the many oval, pointed leaflets and, through the late spring, the small, inconspicuous, greenish flowers, followed by the small, round, reddish-brown, aromatic capsules of the glossy, black seeds. It is a species of the flowering plant in the rue family, and it is native to the warm hills of the central and the western China, while it is prized for its fine, aromatic capsules, and it is known as the Sichuan pepper.

In the rue family it is the numbing, fragrant spice shrub of the warm hills, a plant whose dried capsules carry one of the most famous flavours of the eastern kitchen.

Scientific Research & Plant Biotechnology

The Sichuan pepper holds a firm place in the flavour-science papers of the world, and the compounds behind the famous numbing, tingly sensation of the capsules have kept the food chemists busy for years. The natural-product chemists have also gone through the parts of the plant for the constituents behind the long traditional use of the eastern Asia, and the botanists have mapped its place in the rue family and the warm hills of the central and the western China. It is a spice the scientists admire and the cooks of the region have never stopped using, and the growers of the spice shrubs keep it in their catalogues.

Ecological & Economic Value & Wide Applications

In the warm garden, the Sichuan pepper is the spiny, aromatic shrub of the sunny corner. Its small flowers feed the insects, the spiny, leafy growth gives cover and shelter to the birds, and the small, round, reddish-brown capsules are gathered and dried for the fine cooking of the region and the world. The famous numbing flavour has carried it into kitchens far beyond its hills, and it grows well in the warm, sunny, well-drained ground. Spiny, aromatic and world-famous.

The seeds come out of the reddish-brown capsules — sow them fresh, at a shallow depth in pots of sandy, free-draining soil, keep the pots in a bright, sheltered spot and water them regularly, and the first shoots will appear in their own good time.