Mexican Pepperleaf (Piper auritum Kunth)

Fresh leaves. They can grow to sizes of 30 cm and more.

Since dried or fresh leaves are hard to get outside of tropical México, cooks often will need a substitute for Mexican pepper­leaves. The best option is to grow the plant, which turns out rather decorative and surprisingly robust.

The canonical substitute for peper leaves are avocado leaves, but only avocado types native to México (Persea drimyfolia) have scented foliage; avocados from other regions are mostly Persea americana with insipid leaves. Note that because avocado leaves share their main constituent, safrol, with pepper leaves, they offer no health benefits.

Mexican tarragon or even ordinary French tarragon will work in recipes that use puréed leaves, but will of course fail for recipes that use Mexican pepper-leaves as wrappers for fish, poultry or tamales; in the latter case, Thai basil (horapha type) can be tried.

Piperaceae (pepper family)

Aromatic and pleasant, loosely reminiscent to anise, nutmeg and black pepper. The flavour is strongest in the young stems and veins, which have additionally a pleasant warming pungency. See also cicely on the topic of anise fragrance.

The essential oil from the leaves (0.2%) is rich in safrole (up to 80%), a substance with pleasant odour. Furthermore, a large number of mono- and sesquiterpenoids have been found.

Mexican pepperleaf (hoja santa), plant with flower

See sassafras about the potential health hazards of safrole. Besides in P. auritum, safrole appears in several other neotropic pepper species. At least one of them, Piper hispidinervium (syn. P. franguanum), is currently grown in Brazil for extraction of safrole (pimenta longa). Black pepper contains only traces of this toxic substance.

Tropic Mesoamerica (Southern México, Guatemala, Panamá, Northern Colombia).

See pepper. The species name auritus derives from Latin auris ear and means (long)-eared, referring to the leaves’ shape.

The (rare) English term eared pepper is open to misunderstandig, because English ear has two distinct meanings organ for hearing and inflorescence/infrutescence of various plants, particularly cereals. The two are actually chance homonyms and derive from different Proto-Indo-European roots: H₂EUS ear (for hearing) but H₂EḰ sharp, pointed (cf. acute or acid).

I cannot explain the Spanish name hoja santa sacred leaf; maybe this hints at cultic use of this plant in Aztec rituals. The English name root beer plant is motivated by the olfactory similarity to sassafras, which is used to prepare the US softdrink root beer.

Pacific Islands Ecosystems at Risk: Eared Pepper Sorting Piper names (www.plantnames.unimelb.edu.au) Recipe: Mole Verde (groups.yahoo.com) Recipe: Mole Verde con Pollo (The Mole Page, www.ramekins.com) Recipe: Mole Verde de Oaxaca (The Mole Page, www.ramekins.com) Safrole from plants (erowid.org)