part i

. (1875.)—A beautiful figure in Roxburgh, _Plants of the Coast of Coromandel_, ii. (1798) tab. 168.

[2127] _Journey through Mysore, Canara_, etc., (Lond. 1807) i. 168. 204. 211, ii. 343.

[2128] Hanbury, _Pharm. Journ._ xii. (1853) 386. 589; or _Science Papers_, 73.

[2129] _Ibid._ xvii. (1858) 408; _Science Papers_, 75.

An analogous drug is mentioned by Paulus Ægineta[2130] in the 7th century as well as by the Arabian physicians[2131] as early as the 10th century, under the name of _Kanbil_ or _Wars_. Ibn Khurdádbah, an Arab geographer, living A.D. 869-885, states that from Yemen come striped silks, ambergris, _wars_, and gum.[2132] It is described to be a reddish yellow powder like sand, which falls on the ground in the valleys of Yemen, and is a good remedy for tapeworm and cutaneous diseases. One writer compares it to powdered saffron; another speaks of two kinds,—an Abyssinian which is _black_ (or violet), and an Indian which is _red_. Masudi,[2133] in the first half of the 10th century speaks of _qinbil_, which he says consists of sandy fruits of red hue. They are useful as an anthelminthic and for cutaneous diseases. A similar explanation of the qinbil is found in Qamus, a dictionary writer in the 13th century in Yemen. About the year 1216, a learned traveller, Abul Abbas Ahmad Annabati,[2134] (Annabati = the botanist) or Abul Abbas el-Nebáti, who was a native of Seville, remarks that the drug is known in the Hejaz and brought from Yemen, but that it is unknown in Andalusia and does not grow there.

Kazwini,[2135] nearly at the same period, was also acquainted with _wars_, a plant _sown_ in Yemen and resembling Sesam; Constantinus Africanus likewise mentioned “_huars_.” Wars, Wors, Wurrus or Warras in Arabia properly signifies saffron.

In modern times, we find Niebuhr[2136] speaks of the same substance (as “_wars_”), stating it to be a dye-stuff, of which quantities are conveyed from Mokha to Oman.

=Production=—Kamala is one of the minor products of the Government forests in the Madras Presidency, but is also collected in many other parts of India. The following particulars have been communicated to us by a correspondent[2137] in the North-west Provinces:—

“ ... Enormous quantities of _Rottlera tinctoria_ are found growing at the foot of these hills, and every season numbers of people, chiefly women and children, are engaged in collecting the powder for exportation to the plains. They gather the berries in large quantities and throw them into a great basket in which they roll them about, rubbing them with their hands so as to divest them of the powder, which falls through the basket as through a sieve, and is received below on a cloth spread for the purpose. This powder forms the _Kamala_ of commerce, and is in great repute as an anthelminthic, but is most extensively used as a dye. The adulterations are chiefly the powdered leaves, and the fruit-stalks with a little earthy matter, but the percentage is not large. The operations of picking the fruit and rubbing off the powder commence here in the beginning of March and last about a month....”

[2130] Adams’ translat. iii. 457.

[2131] Quoted by Ibn Baytar,—see Sontheimer’s translation, ii. (1842) 326. 585.

[2132] Ibn Khordadbeh, _Livre des routes etc.—Journ. Asiatique_, v. (1865) 295.

[2133] _Les Prairies d’or_, i. (Paris, 1861) 367.

[2134] Quoted by Ibn Baytar.

[2135] Ed. Lichtenfels, i. (Göttingen, 1849).

[2136] _Description de l’Arabie_, 1774. 133.

[2137] F. E. G. Matthews, Esq., of Nainee Tal.

A similar powder is collected in Southern Arabia, whence it is shipped to the Persian Gulf and Bombay. It is also brought, under the name of _Wars_, from Hurrur, a town in Eastern Africa, which is a great trading station between the Galla countries and Berbera.[2138] Yet the Arabian and African drug consists in most cases not of kamala, but of those dark glands which we describe further on, at p. 575.

[2138] Burton, _Journ. of R. Geogr. Society_, xxv. (1855) 146. Haggenmacher, _Reise in das Somaliland_, in Petermann’s _Geogr. Mittheilungen_, Ergänzungsheft, xlvii. (1874) 39.

=Description=—Kamala is a fine, granular, mobile powder, consisting of transparent, crimson granules, the bright colour of which is mostly somewhat deadened by the admixture of grey stellate hairs, minute fragments of leaves and similar foreign matter. It is nearly destitute of taste and smell, but an alcoholic solution poured into water emits a melon-like odour. Kamala is scarcely acted on by water, even at a boiling heat; on the other hand, alcohol, ether, chloroform or benzol extract from it a splendid red resin. Neither sulphuric nor nitric acid acts upon it in the cold, nor does oil of turpentine become coloured by it unless warmed. It floats on water, but sinks in oil of turpentine. When sprinkled over a flame, it ignites after the manner of lycopodium. Heated alone, it emits a slight aromatic odour; if pure, it leaves after incineration about 1·37 per cent. of a grey ash.

=Microscopic Structure=—The granules of kamala are irregular spherical glands, 50 to 60 mkm. in diameter; they have a wavy surface, are somewhat flattened or depressed on one side, and enclose within their delicate yellowish membrane a structureless yellow mass in which are imbedded numerous, simple, club-shaped cells containing a homogeneous, transparent, red substance. These cells are grouped in a radiate manner around the centre of the flattened side, so that on the side next the observer, 10 to 30 of them may easily be counted, while the entire gland may contain 40 to 60. In a few cases, a very short stalk-cell is also seen at the centre of the base.

When the glands are exhausted by alcohol and potash, and broken by pressure between flat pieces of glass, they separate into individual cells which swell up slightly, while the membranous envelope is completely detached, and appears as a simple coherent film. After this treatment the cells, but not their membranous envelope, acquire by prolonged contact with strong sulphuric acid and iodine water a more or less brown or blue colour: the walls of the cells alone correspond therefore to cellulose. Vogl (1864) supposes that a cell of the epidermis of the fruit first develops a young cellule, which by

## partition is resolved into the stalk-cell and the true mother-cell of

the small clavate resin-cellules. At first, the contents of the latter do not differ from the mass in which they are imbedded, and perhaps pass gradually into resin by metamorphosis of the cellular substance.

The glands of kamala are always accompanied by colourless or brownish, thick-walled, stellate hairs, two or three times as long as the glands, often containing air, which do not exhibit any peculiarity of form, but resemble the hairs of other plants, as _Verbascum_ or _Althæa_.

=Chemical Composition=—Kamala has been analysed by Anderson of Glasgow (1855) and by Leube (1860). From the labours of these chemists, it appears that the powder yields to alcohol or ether nearly 80 per cent. of resin. We find it to be soluble also in glacial acetic acid or in bisulphide of carbon, not in petroleum ether. By treatment of the resin extracted by ether with cold alcohol, Leube resolved it into two brittle reddish yellow resins, of which the one is more easily soluble and fuses at 80° C., and the other dissolves less readily and fuses at 191°. Both dissolve in alkaline solutions, and can be precipitated by acids without apparent change.

Anderson found that a concentrated ethereal solution of kamala allowed to stand for a few days, solidified into a mass of granular crystals, which by repeated solution and crystallization in ether were obtained in a state of purity. This substance, named by Anderson _Rottlerin_,[2139] forms minute, platy, yellow crystals of a fine satiny lustre, readily soluble in ether, sparingly in cold alcohol, more so in hot, and insoluble in water. The mean of four analyses gave the composition of rottlerin as C₂₂H₂₀O₆.

We have been able to confirm the foregoing observations so far as that we have obtained an abundance of minute acicular crystals, by allowing an ethereal solution of kamala to evaporate spontaneously to a syrupy state. But the purification of these crystals, which was also attempted by our friend Mr. T. B. Groves,[2140] was unsuccessful, for when freed from the protecting mother-liquor, they underwent a change and assumed an amorphous form. We have, on the other hand, succeeded in isolating the crystals from the “_Kamalin_,” as sold by E. Merck of Darmstadt. By fusing them with caustic potash we obtained paraoxy-benzoic acid (see page 408).

=Uses=—The drug is administered for the expulsion of tapeworm; it has also been used as an external application in _herpes circinnatus_. In India it is employed for dyeing silk a rich orange-brown.

=Adulteration=—Kamala is very liable to adulteration with earthy substances, even to the extent of 60 per cent. This contamination may easily be known by the grittiness of the drug, and by a portion of it sinking when it is stirred up with water, but in the most decisive manner by incineration. Sometimes kamala contains an undue proportion of foreign vegetable matter, as remains of the capsules, leaves, etc., which can partly be separated by a lawn sieve. We have met with a large quantity of very impure Kamala in the London market (1878), which was offered for cleaning polished metallic surfaces.

=Substitute=—A very remarkable form of so-called kamala was imported in 1867 from Aden by Messrs. Allen and Hanburys, druggists, of London.[2141] It arrived neatly packed in oblong, white calico bags, of three sizes, each inscribed with Arabic characters, indicating with the name of the vendor or collector, a native of Hurrur, the net weight, which was either 100, 50, or 25 Turkish ounces. No more than two supplies, in all 136 lb., could be obtained.

[2139] See _Science Papers_, 78.

[2140] _Yearbook of Pharmacy_, 1872. 599.

[2141] It has been particularly described by one of us in _Pharm. Journ._ ix. (1868) 279, with woodcuts.

The drug was in coarser particles than kamala, of a deep purple, and had a distinct odour resembling that which is produced when a tincture of kamala is poured into water. It had been carefully collected and was free from earthy admixture, yet it left upon incineration 12 per cent. of ash. Under the microscope it presented still greater differences, the grains being cylindrical or subconical, 170 to 200 mkm. long, by 70 to 100 mkm. broad, with _oblong_ resin-cells, arranged perpendicularly in three or four storeys; mixed with the grains were a few long, simple hairs. Another fact of some interest is, that at a temperature of 93° to 100° C., this drug becomes quite black, while kamala undergoes no change of colour.

In 1878 our friend Professor Schär was informed by a Swiss firm, Messrs. Furrer and Escher of Aden, that Kanbil, Qinbil or Kamala are unknown there. But they sent under the name of _Vars_ a powder, which Prof. Schär as well as one of us (F.) find identical with the drug which had been imported by Messrs. Allen and Hanbury. Prof. Schär was also informed that Vars is used chiefly in the coast districts of Mascat (Oman) and Hadramaut, in skin diseases, for expelling the tape worm and as a dye.

Thus the appellation Wurrus or Waras is to be restricted to the dark purple or violet glands occurring in eastern Africa and Yemen, although the Waras sent to one of us[2142] by Vaughan was kamala.

As to the mother plant of Waras[2143] we have no information to offer; we attempted in vain to ascertain its origin. It is evident that it is the “black Abyssinian” powder already alluded to at page 573.

PIPERACEÆ.

FRUCTUS PIPERIS NIGRI.

_Piper nigrum_; _Black Pepper_; F. _Poivre noir_; G. _Schwarzer Pfeffer_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Piper nigrum_ L.—The pepper plant is a perennial climbing shrub, with jointed stems branching dichotomously, and broadly ovate, 5-to 7-nerved, stalked leaves. The slender flower-spikes are opposite the leaves, stalked, and from 3 to 6 inches long; and the fruits are sessile and fleshy.

_Piper nigrum_ is indigenous to the forests of Travancore and Malabar, whence it has been introduced into Sumatra, Java, Borneo, the Malay Peninsula, Siam, the Philippines and the West Indies.

=History=—Pepper[2144] is one of the spices earliest used by mankind, and although now a commodity of but small importance in comparison with sugar, coffee, and cotton, it was for many ages the staple article of trade between Europe and India. It would require in fact a volume to give a full idea of the prominent importance of pepper during the middle ages.

In the 4th century B.C., Theophrastus noticed the existence of two kinds of pepper (πέπερι), probably the _Black Pepper_ and _Long Pepper_ of modern times. Dioscorides stated pepper to be a production of India, and was acquainted with _White Pepper_ (λευκὸν πέπερι). Pliny’s information on the same subject is curious; he tells us that in his time a pound of long pepper was worth 15, of white 7, and of black pepper 4 _denarii_; and expresses his astonishment that mankind should so highly esteem pepper, which was neither a sweet taste nor attractive appearance, or any desirable quality besides a certain pungency.

[2142] Hanbury, _Science Papers_, 73.

[2143] Some information will be met with in Capt. Hunter’s _Account of Aden_, 1877. p. 107. In 1875-1876 there were exported from Aden 42,975 lb. of Waras.

[2144] The word _pepper_, which with slight varieties has passed into almost all languages, comes from the Sanskrit name for _Long Pepper_, _pippali_, the change of the _l_ into _r_ having been made by the Persians, in whose ancient language the _l_ is wanting.

In the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, written about A.D. 64, it is stated that pepper is exported from Baraké, the shipping place of Nelkunda, in which region, and there only, it grows in great quantity. These have been identified with places on the Malabar Coast between Mangalore and Calicut.[2145]

Long pepper and Black pepper are among the Indian spices on which the Romans levied duty at Alexandria about A.D. 176.[2146]

Cosmas Indicopleustes,[2147] a merchant, and in later life a monk, who wrote about A.D. 540, appears to have visited the Malabar Coast, or at all events had some information about the pepper plant from an eye-witness. It is he who furnishes the first particulars about it, stating that it is a climbing plant, sticking close to high trees like a vine. Its native country he calls _Male_.[2148] The Arabian authors of the middle ages, as Ibn Khurdádbah (_circa_ A.D. 869-885), Edrisi in the middle of the 12th, and Ibn Batuta in the 14th century, furnished nearly similar accounts.

Among Europeans who described the pepper plant with some exactness, one of the first was Benjamin of Tudela, who visited the Malabar Coast in A.D. 1166. Another was the Catalan friar, Jordanus,[2149] about 1330; he described the plant as something like ivy, climbing trees and forming fruit, like that of the wild vine. “This fruit,” he says, “is at first green, then, when it comes to maturity, black.” Nearly the same statements are repeated by Nicolo Conti, a Venetian, who at the beginning of the 15th century, spent twenty-five years in the East. He observed the plant in Sumatra, and also described it as resembling ivy.[2150]

In Europe, pepper during the middle ages was the most esteemed and important of all spices, and the very symbol of the spice trade, to which Venice,[2151] Genoa, and the commercial cities of Central Europe were indebted for a large part of their wealth; and its importance as a means of promoting commercial activity during the middle ages, and the civilizing intercourse of nation with nation, can scarcely be overrated.

[2145] Vincent, _Commerce and Navigation of the Ancients_, ii. (1807) 458.

[2146] Vincent, _op. cit._ ii. 754; also Meyer, _Geschichte der Botanik_, ii. (1865) 167.

[2147] Migne, _Patrologiæ Cursus_, series Græca, lxxxviii. (1860) 443. 446.

[2148] _Bar_ (as in _Malabar_) merely signifies in Arabic, _coast_.

[2149] _Mirabilia descripta_ by Friar Jordanus, translated by Col. Yule. London, Hakluyt Society, 1863. 27.

[2150] “Piperis arbor persimilis est ederæ, grana ejus viridia ad formam grani juniperi, quæ modico cinere aspersa torrentur ad solem.”—Kunstmann, _Kenntniss Indiens im xv. Jahrhundert_, München (1863) 40.

[2151] In the beginning of the 15th century the great emporium of the trade in pepper appears to have been the vicinity of the Church S. Giacomo de Rialto at Venice. In the “capitolare dei Visdomini del fontego dei Todeschi (German court) in Venezia,” edit. of Thomas, Berlin, 1874, the chapter 228, page 116, is devoted to “_La mercadantia del pevere_.”

Tribute was levied in pepper,[2152] and donations were made of this spice, which was often used as a medium of exchange when money was scarce. During the siege of Rome by Alaric, king of the Goths, A.D. 408, the ransom demanded from the city included among other things 5000 pounds of gold, 30,000 pounds of silver, and 3000 pounds of _pepper_.[2153] After the conquest of Cæsarea in Palestine, A.D. 1101, by the Genoese, each of them received two pounds of pepper and 48 soldi for his part of the booty.[2154] Facts of this nature, of which a great number might be enumerated, sufficiently illustrate the part played by this spice in mediæval times.

The general prevalence during the middle ages of _pepper-rents_, which consisted in an obligation imposed upon a tenant to supply his lord with a certain quantity of pepper, generally a pound, at stated times, shows how acceptable was this favourite condiment, and how great the desire of the wealthier classes to secure a supply of it when the market was not always certain.[2155]

The earliest reference to a trade in pepper in England that we have met with, is in the Statutes of Ethelred, A.D. 978-1016,[2156] where it is enacted that the Easterlings coming with their ships to Billingsgate should pay at Christmas and Easter for the privilege of trading with London, a small tribute of cloth, five pairs of gloves, _ten pounds of pepper_,[2157] and two barrels of vinegar.

The merchants who trafficked in spices were called _Piperarii_,—in English _Pepperers_, in French _Poivriers_ or _Pebriers_. As a fraternity or guild, they are mentioned as existing in London in the Reign of Henry II. (A.D. 1154-1189). They were subsequently incorporated as the Grocers’ Company, and had the oversight and control of the trade in spices, drugs, dye-stuffs, and even metals.[2158]

The price of pepper during the middle ages was always exorbitantly high, for the rulers of Egypt extorted a large revenue from all those who were engaged in the trade in it and other spices.[2159] Thus in England between A.D. 1263 and 1399, it averaged 1_s._ per lb., equivalent to about 8_s._ of our present money. It was however about 2_s._ per lb. (= 16_s._) between 1350 and 1360.[2160] In 1370 we find pepper in France valued 7 sous 6 deniers per lb. (= fr. 21. c. 30):—in 1542 at a price equal to fr. 11 per lb.[2161]

The high cost of this important condiment contributed to incite the Portuguese to seek for a sea-passage to India. It was some time after the discovery of this passage (A.D. 1498) that the price of pepper first experienced a considerable fall; while about the same period the cultivation of the plant was extended to the western islands of the Malay Archipelago. The trade in pepper continued to be a monopoly of the Crown of Portugal as late as the 18th century.

[2152] For some examples of this, see _Histoire de la vie privée des Français_, par le Grand d’Aussy, nouvelle éd., ii. (1815) 182.

[2153] Zosimus, _Historia_ (Lips. 1784) lib. v. c. 41.

[2154] Belgrano, _Vita privata dei Genovesi_ 1875. 152.

[2155] Rogers, _Agriculture and Prices in England_, i. (1866) 626. The term _peppercorn rent_, which has survived to our times, now only signifies a nominal payment.

[2156] _Ancient Laws and Institutes of England_, published by the Record Commission, i. (1840) 301.

[2157] A striking contrast to the announcement in a commercial paper, 27 _Feb._ 1874, that the stock of pepper in the public warehouses of London the previous week was 6035 tons!

[2158] Herbert, _Hist. of the twelve great Livery Companies of London_, Lond. 1834. 303, 310.

[2159] Reinaud, _Nouveau Journal asiatique_, 1829, Juillet, 22-51.

[2160] Rogers, _op. cit._ i. 641.

[2161] Leber, _Appréciation de la fortune privée au moyen-âge, éd._ 2, Paris, 1847. 95, 305.

The Venetians used every effort to retain the valued traffic in their own hands, but in vain; and it was a fact of general interest when on the 21st of January 1522 a Portuguese ship brought for the first time the spices of India direct to the city of Antwerp. Strange to say, they were received with great mistrust!

Pepper was heavily taxed in England. In 1623 the imposts levied on it amounted to 5_s._ per lb.; and even down to 1823 it was subject to a duty of 2_s._ 6_d._ per lb.

=Production=—In the south-west of India, the plant, or _Pepper Vine_ as it is called, grows on the sides of the narrow valleys where the soil is rich and moist, producing lofty trees by which a constant, favourable coolness is maintained. In such places the pepper-vine runs along the ground and propagates itself by striking out roots into the soil. The natives tie up the end of the vines lying on the ground to the nearest tree, on the bark of which the stems put out roots so far as they have been tied, the shoots above that hanging down. The plant is capable of growing to a height of 20 or 30 feet, but for the sake of convenience it is usually kept low, and is often trained on poles. In places where no vines occur naturally, the plant is propagated by planting slips near the roots of the trees on which it is to climb.

The pepper plants if grown on a rich soil begin to bear even in the first year, and continue to increase in productiveness till about the fifth, when they yield 8 to 10 lb. of berries per plant, which is about the average produce up to the age of 15 to 20 years; after this they begin to decline.

When one or two berries at the base of the spike begin to turn red, the whole spike is pinched off. Next day the berries are rubbed off with the hands and picked clean; then dried for three days on mats, or on smooth hard ground, or on bamboo baskets near a gentle fire.

In Malabar the pepper-vine flowers in May and June, and the fruits become fit for gathering at the commencement of the following year.[2162]

The largest quantities of pepper are produced in the island of Rhio, near Singapore, in Djohor (in the south-eastern coast of the Malayan Peninsula), and in Penang. The latter island affords on an average about one-half of the total crop.

=Description=—The small, round, berry-like fruits grow somewhat loosely to the number of 20 to 30, on a common pendulous fruit-stalk. They are at first green, then become red, and if allowed to ripen, yellow; but they are gathered before complete maturity, and by drying in that state turn blackish grey or brown. If left until quite ripe they lose some of their pungency, and gradually fall off.

The berries after drying are spherical, about ⅕ inch in diameter, wrinkled on the surface, indistinctly pointed below by the remains of the very short pedicel, and crowned still more indistinctly by the 3-or 4-lobed stigma. The thin pericarp tightly encloses a single seed, the embryo of which in consequence of premature gathering is undeveloped, and merely replaced by a cavity situated below the apex. The seed itself contains within the thin red-brown testa a shining albumen, grey and horny without, and mealy within. The pungent taste and peculiar smell of pepper are familiar to all.

[2162] For a full account of the cultivation of pepper, see Buchanan, _Journey from Madras through Mysore, Canara, and Malabar_, ii. (1807) 455-520; iii. 158.

=Microscopic Structure=—The transverse section of a grain of black pepper exhibits a soft yellowish epidermis, covering the outer pericarp. This is formed of a closely-packed yellow layer of large, mostly radially arranged, thick-walled cells, each containing in its small cavity a mass of dark brown resin. The middle layer of the pericarp consists of soft, tangentially-extended parenchyme, containing an abundance of extremely small starch granules and drops of oil. The shrinking of this loose middle layer is the chief cause of the deep wrinkles on the surface of the berry. The next inner layer of the pericarp exhibits towards its circumference tangentially-arranged, soft parenchyme, the cells of which possess either spiral striation or spiral fibres, but towards the interior loose parenchyme, free from starch, and containing very large oil-cells.

The testa is formed in the first place of a row of small yellow thick-walled cells. Next to them follows the true testa, as a dense, dark brown layer of lignified cells, the individual outlines of which are undistinguishable.

The albumen of the seeds consists of angular, radially-arranged, large-celled parenchyme. Most of its cells are colourless and loaded with starch; others contain a soft yellow amorphous mass. If thin slices are kept under glycerin for some time, these masses are slowly transformed into needle-shaped crystals of piperin.

=Chemical Composition=—Pepper contains resin and essential oil, to the former of which its sharp pungent taste is due. The essential oil has more of the smell than of the taste of pepper.[2163] The drug yields from 1·6 to 2·2 per cent. of this volatile oil, which agrees with oil of turpentine in composition as well as in specific gravity and boiling point. We find it, in a column 50 mm. long, to deviate the ray of polarized light 1°·2 to 3°·4 to the left.

The most interesting constituent of pepper, _Piperin_, which pepper yields to the extent of 2 to 8 per cent., agrees in composition with the formula C₁₇H₁₉NO₃, like morphine. Piperin has no action on litmus paper; it is not capable of combining directly with an acid, yet unites with hydrochloric acid in the presence of mercuric and other metallic chlorides, forming crystallizable compounds. It is insoluble in water; when perfectly pure, its crystals are devoid of colour, taste and smell. Its alcoholic solution is without action on polarized light. Piperin may be resolved, as found by Anderson in 1850, into _Piperic Acid_, C₁₂H₁₀O₄, and _Piperidine_, C₅H₁₁N. The latter is a liquid colourless alkaloid, boiling at 106° C., having the odour of pepper and ammonia, and directly yielding crystallizable salts.

Besides these constituents, pepper also contains some fatty oil in the mesocarp. Of inorganic matter, it yields upon incineration from 4·1 to 5·7 per cent.

=Commerce=—Singapore is the great emporium for pepper, of which 197,478 peculs (26⅓ million lb.) were imported there in 1877. The largest part of it finds its way to England. The import of pepper into the United Kingdom during 1872, was 27,576,710 lb. valued at £753,970. Of this quantity, the Straits Settlements supplied 25,000,000 lb., and British India 256,000 lb. Of the quantity of 25,917,070 lb., imported in 1876 into Great Britain, the home consumption was 9 million lb.

[2163] As noticed by Rheede in 1688: “ ... oleum ex pipere destillatum levem piperis odorem spirans, saporis parum acris.”—_Hort. Malab._ vii. 24.—The oil was however obtained long before by Valerius Cordus, Guintherus Andernacensis and Porta (see our article Cortex Cinnamomi, page 526).

The exports of pepper from the United Kingdom in 1872 amounted to 17,891,620 lb., the largest quantity being taken by Germany (5,201,574 lb.) Then follows Italy (2,288,647 lb.); and Russia, Holland and Spain, each of which took more than a million pounds.[2164]

The varieties of pepper quoted in price-currents are _Malabar_, _Aleppee and Cochin_, _Penang_, _Singapore_, _Siam_.

A large quantity is also shipped from Singapore to China, the imports of that country in 1877 of both black and white pepper, being 53,844 peculs (7,179,200 lb.)

=Uses=—Pepper is not of much importance as a medicine, and is rarely if ever prescribed, except indirectly as an ingredient of some preparation.

=Adulteration=—Whole pepper is not, we believe, liable in Europe to adulteration;[2165] but the case is widely different as regards the pulverized spice. Notwithstanding the enormous penalty of £100, to which the manufacturer, possessor, or seller of adulterated pepper is liable,[2166] and the low cost of the article, ground pepper has hitherto been frequently sophisticated by the addition of the starches of cereals and potatoes, of sago, mustard husks, linseed and capsicum. The admixture of these substances may for the most part be readily detected, after some practice, by the microscope.[2167]

White Pepper.

This form of the spice is prepared from black pepper by removing its dark outer layer of pericarp, and thereby depriving it of a portion of its pungency. It is mentioned by Dioscorides, yet was evidently very little known in Europe even during the middle ages. In the time of Platearius,[2168] white pepper was supposed to be derived from a plant different from Piper nigrum.

Buchanan,[2169] referring to Travancore, remarks that white pepper is made by allowing the berries to ripen; the bunches are then gathered, and having been kept for three days in the house, are washed and bruised in a basket with the hand till all the stalks and pulp are removed.

The finest white pepper is obtained from Tellicherry, on the Malabar Coast, but only in small quantity. The more important places for its preparation are the Straits Settlements, chiefly Rhio. The export of white pepper from Singapore in 1877 was 48,460 peculs. Most of the spice finds its way to China, where it is highly esteemed. In Europe, pepper in its natural state is with good reason preferred.

[2164] _Annual Statement of the Trade of the U.K. for 1872._ 59., 125.

[2165] According to Moodeen Sheriff (_Suppl. to Pharm. of India_, 134) the berries of _Embelia_ (Samara) _Ribes_, order _Myrsineæ_, are said to be sometimes used for adulterating black pepper in the Indian bazaars.

[2166] By the 59 George III. c. 53 § 22 (1819).

[2167] Consult, Hassall, _Food and its Adulterations_, Lond. 1855. 42; Evans, _Pharm. Journ._ i. (1860) 605.

[2168] _Glossæ in antidotarium Nicolai._, ccxlvi. verso.

[2169] In the work quoted, page 579, ii. 465, 533, and iii. 224.

The grains of white pepper are of rather larger size than those of black, and of a warm greyish tint. They are nearly spherical or a little flattened. At the base the skin of the fruit is thickened into a blunt prominence, whence about 12 light stripes run meridian-like towards the depressed summit. If the skin is scraped off, the dark brown testa is seen enclosing the hard translucent albumen. In anatomical structure, as well as in taste and smell, white pepper agrees with black, which in fact it represents in a rather more fully-grown state.

White pepper appears to afford on an average not more than 1·9 per cent. of essential oil, but to be richer in piperin, of which Cazeneuve and Caillol (1877) extracted as much as 9 per cent. The amount of ash yielded by white pepper is 1·1 per cent. on an average, that is to say, considerably less than by black pepper.

FRUCTUS PIPERIS LONGI.

_Piper longum_; _Long Pepper_; F. _Poivre long_; G. _Langer Pfeffer_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Piper officinarum_ C. DC. (_Chavica[2170] officinarum_ Miq.), a diœcious shrubby plant, with ovate-oblong acuminate leaves, attenuated at the base, and having pinnate nerves. It is a native of the Indian Archipelago, as Java, Sumatra, Celebes and Timor. Long pepper is the fruit spike, collected and dried shortly before it reaches maturity.

_Piper longum_ L.[2171] (_Chavica Roxburghii_ Miq.), a shrub indigenous to Malabar, Ceylon, Eastern Bengal, Timor and the Philippines, also yields long pepper, for the sake of which it is cultivated along the eastern and western coasts of India. It may be distinguished from the previous species by its 5-nerved leaves, cordate at the base.[2172]

=History=—A drug termed Πέπερι μακρὸν, _Piper longum_, was known to the ancient Greeks and Romans, and may have been the same as the _Long Pepper_ of modern times.

In the Latin verses bearing the name of Macer Floridus,[2173] which were probably written in the 10th century, mention is made of Black, White, and Long Pepper. The last named spice, or _Macropiper_, is named by Simon of Genoa,[2174] who was physician to Pope Nicolas IV. and chaplain to Boniface VIII. (A.D. 1288-1303), and travelled in the East for the study of plants. Piper longum is also met with in the list of drugs on which (A.D. 1305) duty was levied at Pisa.[2175] Nicolo Conti of Venice, who lived in India from 1419 to 1444, noticed Long Pepper.[2176] Saladinus[2177] in the middle of the 15th century enumerates long pepper among the drugs necessary to be kept by apothecaries and it has had a place in the pharmacopœias to the present time.

[2170] The genus _Chavica_ separated from _Piper_ by Miquel, has been re-united to it by Casimir de Candolle (_Prod._ xvi. s. 1). The latter genus is now composed of not fewer than 620 species!

[2171] Fig. in Bentley and Trimen’s _Med. Plants_,