Pink pepper (Pink peppercorn, aguaribay) is the berry of the plant Schinus molle which is born in Peru or from the plant Schinus terebinthifolius for which it is not a real pepper, but the fruit of the berries of these plants that are very beautiful aesthetically, but rather invasive as they can reach a height of 7 meters and a width of 10 meters.

It is also called:

• California Pepper Tree
• False pepper tree
• Peruvian pepper tree
• California Big Tree

Its essential oil contains antioxidants and antifungal components (1):

• β-pinene (25,23)
• epi-α-cadinol (21·29%)
• α-pinene (18·72%)
• myrcene (11·54%)
• sabinene (5·02%)

In another recent study, the essential oil obtained from the leaves of Schinus molle has a fairly similar composition, but, in this analysis, alpha-pinene, a terpene, is the main one with 23,49% . The action exerted by alpha-pinene has a cytotoxic activity against some types of immune cells (macrophages), only at high concentrations (2).

Pink pepper studies

References______________________________________

(1) do Prado AC, Garces HG, Bagagli E, Rall VLM, Furlanetto A, Fernandes Junior A, Furtado FB.  Schinus molle essential oil as a potential source of bioactive compounds: antifungal and antibacterial properties.  J Appl Microbiol. 2019 Feb;126(2):516-522. doi: 10.1111/jam.14157.

(2) Duarte JA, Zambrano LAB, Quintana LD, Rocha MB, Schmitt EG, Boligon AA, Anraku de Campos MM, de Oliveira LFS, Machado MM.  Immunotoxicological Evaluation of Schinus molle L. (Anacardiaceae) Essential Oil in Lymphocytes and Macrophages.   Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2018 Oct 16;2018:6541583. doi: 10.1155/2018/6541583.