Quote Originally Posted by Batcathat View Post
The Wikipage references historical usage too, and most of its references appear more recent than the one you linked, which might explain the difference (or maybe even the experts disagree, it wouldn't exactly be the first time).
Thr historical references in the wiki (which are scant) still refer to current usage - eg pepper being the most common/popular spice, and. This may be true generally and in modern days but thr Cornell anti-microbial claims specifically noticed that the most anti-microbial spices are also the ones that were heavily used in the cultures that favored spicy foods, such as Southeast Asia, and the spices also align heavily with the more historically common spices in those regions.