From Kampot Pepper Inflorescence to Herbal Infusion
The Kampot Pepper Plant
Kampot Pepper grows as a climbing vine, trained onto wooden or living supports across the terroir of Kampot and Kep in southern Cambodia. Most of what people know about the plant comes from its berries — the peppercorns harvested and processed into Kirum’s green, black, red and white pepper. But the plant offers more than its fruit.
What an Inflorescence Is
Before it develops berries, the Kampot pepper plant produces slender flowering spikes known as inflorescences. These are the vine’s earliest reproductive structures, present well before any pepper corns form, and largely unfamiliar outside the regions where the plant is grown.
From Botanical Ingredient to Kirum Herbal Tea
Confirel combines selected Kampot pepper inflorescences with Cambodian botanicals to create Kirum Herbal Tea — revealing another expression of the pepper plant beyond its familiar use as a spice.
A Patented Botanical Innovation
Dr. Hay Ly Eang, Confirel’s founder, developed a patented composition based on Kampot pepper inflorescence stems and a method for preparing it as an herbal infusion. Originating from a French patent filing in 2016, the invention subsequently received patent protection in eight jurisdictions.
Confirel’s wider materials describe this recognition as extending across 17 countries; the eight jurisdictions below are specifically those where the patent has been formally granted, each with its own registration number and grant date.
Patent Evidence
The invention was filed internationally via the Patent Cooperation Treaty (WIPO publication WO 2017/125669), claiming priority from a French filing of 21 January 2016. It was subsequently granted nationally, by each jurisdiction’s own patent office, in:
- Cambodia — KH/GP/00055, granted 12 April 2023
- Brazil — BR 112018014187-9, granted 4 October 2022
- the European Patent Office — EP 3405207, granted 7 October 2020 (covering designated EU contracting states)
- Indonesia — ID P000075845, granted 5 April 2021
- Japan — JP 6913685, granted 14 July 2021
- Malaysia — MY-187440-A, granted 22 September 2021
- China — ZL 2017 8 0007820.5 / CN 108495644 B, granted 10 December 2021
- Vietnam — No. 36343, granted 9 June 2023
The patent is held by Dr. Hay Ly Eang, Confirel’s founder, personally.
Related Kirum Products
Kirum Herbal Tea is available in single-origin flavours and blended sets, all built on the same inflorescence-stem infusion.
