Piri piriCyperus articulatus

Did you know?

• Articulatus is Latin for "jointed", and the plant's English name, jointed flatsedge, carries the same idea^{[1, 6]}.

• Piri piri is a close cousin of papyrus (Cyperus papyrus), the sedge that ancient Egyptians made into writing material^{[3, 7]}.

• Brazil's name for it, priprioca, comes from a legend: piripiri-oca, "the house of Piripiri", a warrior whose fragrance lived on in the plant^[8].

• In the Peruvian Amazon, piri piri is also the name for a whole group of garden sedges. Matsigenka hunters grow dozens of varieties, each one prized for success with a particular game animal^[9].

• Dried piri piri rhizomes are tucked among clothes to scent them, and burned in rooms as incense and to keep mosquitoes away^{[1, 2]}.

• Its tough stems are woven into mats, and the rhizome is used to flavor food^{[1, 2]}.

Origins and history

Piri piri is a perennial sedge that grows to about 6 feet tall in shallow water and wet ground: ponds, marshes, flooded land and the edges of rivers and lakes^{[1, 2]}. Its round, hollow stems rise from a thick, creeping rhizome, and it is the rhizome that carries the plant's fragrance^{[1, 2]}. Like papyrus, it belongs to Cyperus, a large genus of sedges^{[3, 7]}.

Its names follow it around the world. Carl Linnaeus named it Cyperus articulatus in 1753^[4]. In the Spanish-speaking Amazon it is piri piri or piripiri, and a list of useful plants of Ecuador records several local variants of the name^[6]. In Brazil it is priprioca^{[1, 5]}; in English, jointed flatsedge or guinea rush; in French, souchet articulé^[6].

Brazil's name has a story of its own. A legend recorded in 1926 by the researcher Antônio Brandão de Amorim tells of Piripiri, a warrior whose sweet fragrance charmed the young women of his village. One full-moon night, on the advice of her father, a shaman, a young woman wrapped his feet in her long hair while he slept. By morning Piripiri had vanished, and where he had lain grew a fragrant sedge. People called it piripiri-oca, "the house of Piripiri", and women began to bathe in it and rinse their hair with its grated roots^[8]. The name became priprioca, and in the Amazon the rhizome still goes into perfumed baths and homemade perfumes^[5].

People put nearly every part of it to use. The essential oil of the rhizome goes into perfumery and cosmetics, and the dried rhizomes are used to scent clothes and rooms^{[1, 2]}. The rhizome also flavors food, and the tough stems are woven into mats^{[1, 2]}. Along riverbanks, the plant helps hold the soil in place^{[1, 2]}.

Traditional uses

Clinical studies in people are still few, but its traditional use is rich: people have long valued the rhizome for its fragrance and as a gentle aid to the stomach.

• A fragrant rhizome

  The rhizome's essential oil is used in perfumes and cosmetics, dried rhizomes scent clothes and rooms, and in the Amazon the rhizome goes into perfumed baths.^{[1, 2, 5]}

• Digestive comfort

  Indigenous peoples of the Amazon have long used the rhizome for the stomach and digestion, and it is recorded as a traditional aid to digestion. Piri piri supports digestive comfort.*^{[5, 10]}

• A calm mood

  The rhizome is recorded in folk tradition as a calming herb. Piri piri supports a calm, relaxed mood.*^[10]

Plant compounds

The rhizome holds a fragrant essential oil^{[1, 2]}. Its main compounds include mustakone, cyclocolorenone and alpha-copaene^[5].