emergencyfood

I thought writing ‘peppers’ instead of ‘pepper’ was a more likely mistake than calling a completely unrelated plant ‘pepper’ just because it has that word in one version of its name. My bad.

No no, bell pepper and chilli are (nearly) the same - Capsicum annuum and closely related species. Their hotness comes from capsaicin.

Pepper is completely different - it comes from Piper nigrum, and contains piperin. Confusingly, it is also called black, green or white pepper.

I thought we were talking of pepper. Bell pepper is a different plant.

That’s bell pepper.

(Black) Pepper = Piper nigrum, native to south Asia, used across large parts of the world since antiquity.

Bell pepper or chilli = Capsicum annuum, native to Central America, now also grown in Eurasia.

Pepper is from south Asia, and was available to the ancient Romans through Arab traders.