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''Zanthoxylum piperitum'', also known as Japanese pepper or Japanese prickly-ash is a deciduous aromatic spiny shrub or small tree of the citrus and rue family
Rutaceae The Rutaceae is a family, commonly known as the rueRUTACEAE
in BoDD – Botanical Der ...
, native to Japan and Korea. It is called sanshō () in Japan and chopi () in Korea. Both the leaves and fruits (peppercorns) are used as an aromatic and flavoring in these countries. It is closely related to the Chinese Szechuan peppers, which come from plants of the same genus.


Names

"Japanese pepper" ''Z. piperitum'' is called in Japan, but the corresponding
cognate In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words in different languages that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language. Because language change can have radical ef ...
term in
Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula * Korean cuisine * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl **Korean dialects and the Jeju language ** ...
, ''sancho'' () refers to a different species, or '' Z. schinifolium'' known as ''inuzanshō'' or "dog sansho" in Japan. In Korea, ''Z. piperitum'' is called ''chopi'' (), with the English common name given as "Korean pepper" by Korean sources. However, in several regional dialects, notably
Gyeongsang dialect The Gyeongsang dialects (also spelled Kyŏngsang), or Southeastern Korean, are dialects of the Korean language of the Yeongnam region, which includes both Gyeongsang provinces, North and South. There are approximately 13,000,000 speakers. Unlike ...
, it is also called ''sancho'' or ''jepi'' (). "Japanese prickly-ash" has been used as the standard American common name.


Varieties

The variety ''Z. piperitum'' var. ''inerme'' Makino, known in Japan as "Asakura zanshō" are thornless, or nearly so, and have been widely cultivated for commercial harvesting. The forma ''Z. piperitum'' f. ''pubsescens'' (Nakai) W. T. Lee, is called ''teol chopi'' () in Korea, and is assigned the English name "hairy chopi".


Range

Its natural range spans from
Hokkaido is Japan, Japan's Japanese archipelago, second largest island and comprises the largest and northernmost Prefectures of Japan, prefecture, making up its own List of regions of Japan, region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshu; th ...
to
Kyushu is the third-largest island of Japan's five main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands ( i.e. excluding Okinawa). In the past, it has been known as , and . The historical regional name referred to Kyushu and its surround ...
in Japan, southern parts of the
Korean peninsula Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic ...
, and Chinese mainland.


Description

The plant belongs to the citrus and rue family,
Rutaceae The Rutaceae is a family, commonly known as the rueRUTACEAE
in BoDD – Botanical Der ...
. The tree blooms in April to May, forming axillary flower clusters, about 5mm, and yellow-green in color. It is
dioecious Dioecy (; ; adj. dioecious , ) is a characteristic of a species, meaning that it has distinct individual organisms (unisexual) that produce male or female gametes, either directly (in animals) or indirectly (in seed plants). Dioecious reproducti ...
, and the flowers of the male plant can be consumed as ''hana-sanshō'', while the female flowers yield berries or peppercorns of about 5mm. In autumn, these berries ripen, turning scarlet and burst, scattering the black seeds within. The branch grows pairs of sharp thorns, and has odd-epinnately compound leaves, alternately
arranged In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orchest ...
, with 5〜9 pairs of ovate leaflets having
crenate A leaf ( : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, ste ...
(slightly serrated) margins. It is a host plant for the Japanese indigenous swallowtail butterfly species, the citrus butterfly ''
Papilio xuthus ''Papilio xuthus'', the Asian swallowtail, Chinese yellow swallowtail or Xuthus swallowtail, is a yellow-colored, medium to large sized swallowtail butterfly found in northeast Asia, northern Myanmar, southern China, Taiwan, the Korean Penins ...
'', which has also spread to Hawaii. Chemical analysis has revealed that the seeds contain remarkably high concentrations of sugar-modified derivatives ( glucosides) of N-methylserotonin and N,N-dimethylserotonin, also known as bufotenin.


Cultivation

In
Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...
,
Wakayama Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Wakayama Prefecture has a population of 944,320 () and has a geographic area of . Wakayama Prefecture borders Osaka Prefecture to the north, and Mie Prefecture and Nara Prefecture ...
boasts 80% of domestic production.prefectural website: Aridagawa, Wakayama produces a specialty variety called ''budō sanshō'' ("grape sansho"), which bears large fruits and clusters, rather like a bunch of grapes. The thornless variety, ''Asakura sansho'', derives its name from its place of origin, the Asakura district in the now defunct ', integrated into Yabu, Hyōgo.


Uses


Culinary

The Japanese pepper is closely related to the Sichuan pepper of China, and they share the same
genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...
.


Japanese cuisine

The pulverized mature fruits ("peppercorns" or "berries") known as "Japanese pepper" or ''kona-zanshō'' () are the standard spice for sprinkling on the '' kabayaki- unagi'' (broiled eel) dish. It is also one of the seven main ingredients of the blended spice called ''
shichimi , also known as or simply ''shichimi'', is a common Japanese spice mixture containing seven ingredients. Tōgarashi is the Japanese name for ''Capsicum annuum'', a red pepper native to Central and South America, and it is this ingredient tha ...
'', which also contains red
chili pepper Chili peppers (also chile, chile pepper, chilli pepper, or chilli), from Nahuatl '' chīlli'' (), are varieties of the berry-fruit of plants from the genus ''Capsicum'', which are members of the nightshade family Solanaceae, cultivated for ...
s. Finely ground Japanese pepper, ''kona-zanshō'', is nowadays usually sold in sealed packets, and individual serving sizes are included inside heat-and-serve broiled eel packages. Young leaves and shoots, pronounced ''ki-no-mé'' or ''ko-no-mé'' (, ) herald the spring season, and often garnish grilled fish and soups. They have a distinctive flavor which is not to the liking of everyone. It is a customary ritual to put a leaf between cupped hands, and clap the hands with a popping sound, this supposedly serving to bring out the aroma. The young leaves are crushed and blended with miso using '' suribachi'' (mortar) to make a paste, a
pesto Pesto () is a sauce that traditionally consists of crushed garlic, European pine nuts, coarse salt, basil leaves, and hard cheese such as Parmigiano-Reggiano (also known as Parmesan cheese) or Pecorino Sardo (cheese made from sheep's milk), a ...
sauce of sorts, and then used to make various '' aemono'' (tossed salad). The stereotypical main ingredient for the resultant ''kinome-ae'' is the fresh harvest of bamboo shoots, but the sauce may be tossed (or delicately "folded") into
sashimi is a Japanese delicacy consisting of fresh raw fish or meat sliced into thin pieces and often eaten with soy sauce. Origin The word ''sashimi'' means "pierced body", i.e. " 刺身" = ''sashimi'', where 刺 し = ''sashi'' (pierced, stu ...
, clams, squid or other vegetable such as ''tara-no-me'' ( angelica-tree shoots). The immature green berries are called ''ao-zanshō'' (), and these may be blanched and salted, or simmered using
soy sauce Soy sauce (also called simply soy in American English and soya sauce in British English) is a liquid condiment of Chinese origin, traditionally made from a fermented paste of soybeans, roasted grain, brine, and ''Aspergillus oryzae'' or '' As ...
into dark-brown '' tsukudani'', which is eaten as condiment. The berries are also available as ''shoyu-zuke'', which is just steeped in soy sauce. The berries are also cooked with small fry fish and flavored with soy sauce ('), a specialty item of
Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the c ...
, since its Mount Kurama outskirts is a renowned growing area of the plant. There is also a dessert named ', rice cake dessert flavored with ground Japanese pepper. It is a specialty in the north. In central and northeastern Japan, there is also non-sticky rice-cake type confection called '' goheimochi'', which is basted with miso-based paste and grilled, sometimes uses the Japanese pepper as flavor additive to the miso. Also being marketed are sansho flavored
arare Arare may refer to: *Norimaki Arare or Arale Norimaki, the main character in ''Dr. Slump'' media *Arare (food), a bite-sized Japanese rice cracker *Japanese destroyer Arare, a warship sunk in 1942 {{disambig ...
( rice crackers), snack foods, and sweet sansho-
mochi is a Japanese rice cake made of , a short-grain japonica glutinous rice, and sometimes other ingredients such as water, sugar, and cornstarch. The rice is pounded into paste and molded into the desired shape. In Japan, it is traditionally ma ...
.


Korean cuisine

Both the plant itself and its fruit (or peppercorn), known as ''chopi'' (), are called by many names including ''jepi'' (), ''jenpi'' (), ''jipi'' (), and ''jopi'' () in different
dialects The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a ...
used in southern parts of
Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic ...
, where the plant is extensively cultivated and consumed. Before the introduction of chili peppers from the New World which led to the creation of the chili paste
gochujang ''Gochujang'' (, from Korean: , ) or red chili paste * is a savory, sweet, and spicy fermented condiment popular in Korean cooking. It is made from gochu-garu (chili powder), glutinous rice, '' meju'' (fermented soybean) powder, ''yeotgir ...
, the Koreans used a ''jang'' paste spiced with chopi and black peppers. In Southern
Korean cuisine Korean cuisine has evolved through centuries of social and political change. Originating from ancient agricultural and nomadic traditions in Korea and southern Manchuria, Korean cuisine reflects a complex interaction of the natural envi ...
, dried and ground chopi fruit is used as a condiment served with varieties of food, such as '' chueo-tang'' (loach soup), ''
maeun-tang ''Maeun-tang'' * () or spicy fish stew is a hot spicy Korean cuisine fish soup boiled with ''gochujang'' (Korean red chili pepper paste), '고춧가루'(chili powder), and various vegetables.hoe Hoe or HOE may refer to: * Hoe (food), a Korean dish of raw fish * Hoe (letter), a Georgian letter * Hoe (tool), a hand tool used in gardening and farming ** Hoe-farming, a term for primitive forms of agriculture * Backhoe, a piece of excavating ...
'' (raw fish). Young leaves of the plant, called ''chopi-sun'' (), are used as a culinary herb or a '' namul'' vegetable in Southern Korean cuisine. The leaves are also eaten pickled as '' jangajji'', pan-fried to make '' buchimgae'' (pancake), or deep-fried as fritters such as '' twigak'' and ''
bugak ''Bugak'' () is a variety of vegetarian ''twigim'' (deep-fried dish) in Korean cuisine. It is made by deep frying dried vegetables or seaweed coated with ''chapssal-pul'' (; glutinous rice paste) and then drying them again. It is eaten as ''ban ...
''. Sometimes, chopi leaves are added to
anchovy An anchovy is a small, common forage fish of the family Engraulidae. Most species are found in marine waters, but several will enter brackish water, and some in South America are restricted to fresh water. More than 140 species are placed in 1 ...
-salt mixture to make herbed fish sauce, called ''chopi- aekjeot''.


Craftwork

In
Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...
, the thick wood of the tree is traditionally made into a gnarled and rough-hewn wooden pestle (''surikogi''), to use with suribachi. While sansho wood surikogi are less common today, they impart subtle flavor to foods ground with them.


Folk medicine

;Japan In Japanese pharmaceuticals, the mature husks with seeds removed are considered the crude medicine form of ''sanshō''. It is an ingredient in , and the '' toso'' wine served ceremonially. The pungent taste derives from sanshool and sanshoamide. It also contains aromatic oils
geraniol Geraniol is a monoterpenoid and an alcohol. It is the primary component of citronella oil and is a primary component of rose oil, palmarosa oil. It is a colorless oil, although commercial samples can appear yellow. It has low solubility in w ...
,
dipentene Limonene is a colorless liquid aliphatic hydrocarbon classified as a cyclic monoterpene, and is the major component in the oil of citrus fruit peels. The - isomer, occurring more commonly in nature as the fragrance of oranges, is a flavoring ...
, citral, etc., "..citral, citronellal, dipentene; (+)-phellandrene, geraniol;(2)pungent substances: sanshool I (a-sanshool), sanshoamide"


Fishing

In Southern parts of
Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic ...
, the fruit is traditionally used in fishing. Being poisonous to small fish, a few fruit dropped in a pond make the fish float shortly after.


See also

* Sichuan pepper * '' Z. beecheyanum'' - ''iwa-zanshō'', ''hire-zanshō''; Okinawan dialect: ''sensuru-gii'' * '' Z. schinifolium'' - ''inu-zanshō'' * '' Z. armatum'' var. subtrifoliatum - ''fuyuzanshō''


Explanatory notes


References

Citation Bibliography * * * * {{Taxonbar, from=Q167881 Japanese condiments Korean condiments Korean vegetables Medicinal plants of Asia Namul Spices Trees of Japan piperitum