A Tropical Christmas Tree with Medicinal Properties
In the tropics our Christmas Trees vary from the traditional Pine tree to the palm tree and also the ornamental pepper plant. The most colorful of the three is without a doubt the capsicum.
The Capsicum annuum is commonly known as the Christmas Tree Pepper and despite its name “annuum”, which means annual, it is not an annual. This variety of pepper originated in northwestern Brazil near Colombia and though this particular species is edible, it is commonly bred as an ornamental plant since its different colored fruits resemble the bulbs on a Christmas tree.
The fruits are acid, bitter, thermogenic, digestive, carminative, laxative, stimulant antipyretic, and cardio tonic. They are useful in gout, arthritis, hoarseness, anorexia, flatulence, cough, cardiac debility, malarial and intermittent fevers, cholera, indolent ulcers and more.