So effective is piperine at improving the uptake of nutrients that you might literally double the nutrients you take in from food simply by going heavy on the pepper. Piperine is particularly high in black pepper, not white, and it' s not present in the other so-called peppers, such as chilli, paprika and cayenne; these are all fruits from the capsicum family with their own interesting properties. Chillies, for example, are one of the richest known sources of vitamin C. Some people are allergic to these ' capsicum' peppers, but allergy to black pepper is rare. It can, however, make you sneeze.