Collection: A selection of 'Szechuan peppers'

Zanthoxylum is the Yellowwood genus, a plant genus known not only for its beautiful yellow wood, but especially for its Szechuan pepper, to which Chinese Szechuan cuisine owes its spicy reputation.

The term Szechuan pepper  is not used exclusively for  the  Chinese pepper berries, but  also for the berries that grow elsewhere, including those of other plants from this genus, some of which are also used culinary.

All plants - shrubs and trees - in the genus Zanthoxylum have in common that  they are richly provided with 'spikes'. Some species even have leaves on which thorns grow. On the trunk the thorns are often woody and corky, sometimes of enormous size, and not at all sharp, but on the branches they are venomous, which makes harvesting the berries quite a task.

The ambiguous name toothache tree is due to the  plants to the combination of the external  relationship of the spines on the trunk to molars, and to  the fact that the berries are traditionally used as an anesthetic, including against toothache, and are also sometimes used in toothpaste.

Below are the types of which we have the dried  berries in our shop. For each species we give the Chinese name if there is one:

Zanthoxylum acantapodium - andaliman - 毛剌花椒 máo là huā jiāo

Zanthoxylum armatum - raye timur - 刺花椒 cì huā jiāoma

Zanthoxylum piperitum - sanshō - 日本花椒 rìběn huājiāo - expiring product!

Zanthoxylum bungeanum - flower pepper - 花椒 huājiāo

Zanthoxylum rhetsa/limonella - (Indian) mountain pepper - 胡椒木 hújiāo mù

Zanthoxylum piperitum - Szechuan fagara pepper - ma jiāo

Zanthoxylum zanthoxyloides - igi ata

The Indian mountain pepper is better known as ma khaen, mac khen or  trpihal, respectively in Laos, Vietnam and India.