<Emphasis Type="Italic">Capsicum</Emphasis> Use in Cambodia: The Continental Region of Southeast Asia Is Not Related to the Dispersal Route of <Emphasis Type="Italic">C. frutescens</Emphasis> in the Ryukyu Islands

Capsicum Use in Cambodia: The Continental Region of Southeast Asia Is Not Related to the Dispersal Route of C. frutescens in the Ryukyu Islands. The local nomenclature and use of Capsicum by Khmer and other ethnic groups in Cambodia and the distribution of the diagnostic ShDH-B isozyme pattern of C. frutescens were studied. People in Cambodia use Capsicum in various ways, not only as a condiment but also as a vegetable, a medicine, and a colorant, and in popular beliefs, agricultural rituals, taboos, and rice malt. The findings showed that the ShDH-B phenotype may not have occurred as a mutation in Asia but in the Americas and then was introduced to Asia. Also, the ShDH-B phenotype is distributed in the insular regions of Southeast and East Asia and Oceania, but seems not to be distributed in the continental region of Southeast Asia. One possible hypothesis is that C. frutescens possessing the ShDH-B phenotype was introduced directly from the Americas via Oceania to the Philippines, and it thereafter dispersed into the insular regions.