Popular names: paprika, red capsicum, Spanish pepper, bell pepper.
Pharmacy name: paprika fruit – Capsici fructus (earlier: Fructus Capsici).
Botanical description. An annual herbaceous plant up to 1 m tall, with splayed branches and long-leaved leaves. From drooping flowers, red, swollen, empty fruits develop – berries. The homeland of paprika is most likely Central America; but it is especially intensively grown in the states of Southern and Eastern Europe, where many of the most diverse varieties have been bred.
Active ingredients: bitter capsaicin, non-bitter oil (anguin), carotenoids, vitamins (especially a lot of vitamin C), essential oil, aromatic and a number of other substances. Applied inside – as a digestive aid; externally – in the form of galenic products for rheumatism; in homeopathy – with complaints during menopause, with hemorrhoids and diseases of the gallbladder. It is eaten as a vegetable plant (sweet forms) and as a condiment.