Thr historical references in the wiki (which are scant) still refer to current usage - eg pepper being the most common/popular spice, and.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.