part 18

(1877).

[2172] For good figures of the two plants, see Hayne’s _Arzney-Gewächse_, xiv. (1843) tab. 20. 21.

[2173] Choulant, _Macer Floridus de Viribus Herbarum_, Lipsiæ, 1832. 114.

[2174] _Clavis Sanationis_, Venet. 1510.

[2175] Bonaini, _Statuti inediti della città di Pisa_, iii. (1857) 492.

[2176] Kunstmann, _Kenntniss Indiens im 15ᵗᵉⁿ Jahrhundert_, München, 1863. 40.

[2177] See Appendix.

=Production=—In Bengal the plants are cultivated by suckers, and require to be grown on a rich, high and dry soil; they should be set about five feet asunder. An English acre will yield in the first year about three maunds (1 maund = 80 lbs.) of the pepper, in the second twelve, and in the third eighteen; after which, as the plant becomes less and less productive, the roots are grubbed up, dried, and sold as _Pipli-múl_, of which there is a large consumption in India as a medicine. The pepper is gathered in the month of January, when full grown, and exposed to the sun until perfectly dry. After the fruit has been collected, the stem and branches die down to the ground.[2178]

[2178] Roxburgh, _Flora Indica_, i. (1832) 155.

=Description=—Long pepper consists of a multitude of minute baccate fruits, closely packed around a common axis, the whole forming a spike of 1½ inch long and ¼ of an inch thick. The spike is supported on a stalk ½ an inch long; it is rounded above and below, and tapers slightly towards its upper end. The fruits are ovoid, ⅒ of an inch long, crowned with a nipple-like point (the remains of the stigma), and arranged spirally with a small peltate bract beneath each. A transverse section of a spike exhibits 8 to 10 separate fruits, disposed radially with their narrower end pointed towards the axis. Beneath the pericarp, the thin brown testa encloses a colourless albumen, of which the obtuser end is occupied by the small embryo.

The long pepper of the shops is greyish-white, and appears as if it had been rolled in some earthy powder. When washed, the spikes acquire their proper colour,—a deep reddish-brown. The drug has a burning aromatic taste, and an agreeable but not powerful odour.

The foregoing description applies to the long pepper of English commerce, which is now obtained chiefly from Java (see next page), where _P. officinarum_ is the common species. In fact the fruits of this latter, as presented to us by Mr. Binnendyk, of the Botanical Garden, Buitenzorg, near Batavia, offer no characters by which we can distinguish them from the article found in the London shops. Those of _P. Betle_ L. var. γ. _densum_ are extremely similar, but we do not know that they are collected for use.

=Microscopic Structure=—The structure of the individual fruits resembles that of black pepper, exhibiting however some characteristic differences. The epicarp has on the outside, tangentially-extended, thick-walled, narrow cells, containing gum; the middle layer consists of wider, thin-walled, obviously porous parenchyme containing starch and drops of oil. In the outer and middle layers of the fruit numerous large thick-walled cells are scattered, as in the external pericarp of _Piper nigrum_; in long pepper, however, they do not form a close circle. The inner pericarp is formed of a row of large, cubic or elongated, radially-arranged cells, filled with volatile oil. A row of smaller tangentially-extended cells separates these oil-cells from the compact brown-red testa, which consists of lignified cells like the inner layer of the testa of black pepper, but without the thick-walled cells peculiar to the latter. The albumen of long pepper is distinguished from that of black pepper by the absence of volatile oil.

=Chemical Constituents=—The constituents of long pepper appear to be the same as those of black pepper. We ascertained the presence of piperin; 8 pounds of the drug were not sufficient to afford us an appreciable quantity of the volatile oil. The resin and volatile oil reside exclusively in the pericarp. Long pepper, according to Blyth (1874), yields 8⅓ per cent. of ash.

=Commerce=—Long pepper is at present exported from Penang and Singapore, whither it is brought chiefly from Java, and to a much smaller extent from Rhio. The quantity exported from Singapore in 1871 amounted to 3,366 cwt., of which only 447 cwt. were shipped to the United Kingdom, the remainder being sent chiefly to British India.[2179] The export from Penang is from 2,000 to 3,000 peculs annually. There is also a considerable export of long pepper from Calcutta.

=Uses=—Long pepper is scarcely used as a medicine, black pepper having been substituted in the few preparations in which it was formerly ordered, but it is employed as a spice and in veterinary medicine.

The aromatic root of _Piper longum_, called in Sanskrit _Pippali-mula_[2180] (whence the modern name _pipli-múl_), is a favourite remedy of the Hindus and also known to the Persians and Arabs.

CUBEBÆ.

_Fructus vel Baccæ vel Piper Cubebæ_[2181]; _Cubebs_; F. _Cubèbes_; G. _Cubeben_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Piper Cubeba_ Linn. f. (_Cubeba officinalis_ Miq.), a climbing, woody, diœcious shrub, indigenous to Java, Southern Borneo and Sumatra.[2182]

=History=—Cubebs have been introduced into medicine by the Arabian physicians of the middle ages, who describe them as having the form, colour, and properties of pepper. Masudi[2183] in the 10th century stated them to be a production of Java. Edrisi,[2184] the geographer, in A.D. 1153 enumerated them among the imports of Aden.

Among European writers, Constantinus Africanus of Salerno was acquainted with this drug as early as the 11th century; and in the beginning of the 13th its virtues were noticed in the writings of the Abbess Hildegard in Germany, and even in those of Henrik Harpestreng in Denmark.[2185]

Cubebs are mentioned as a production of Java (“_grant isle de Javva_”) by Marco Polo; and by Odoric, an Italian friar, who visited the island about forty years later. In the 13th century the drug was an article of European trade, and would appear to have already been regularly imported into London.[2186] Duty was levied upon them as _Cubebas silvestres_ at Barcelona in 1271.[2187] They are mentioned about this period as sold in the fairs of Champagne in France, the price being 4 _sous_ per lb.[2188] They were also sold in England: in accounts under date 1284 they are enumerated with almonds, saffron, raisins, white pepper, grains [of paradise], mace, galangal, and gingerbread, and entered as costing 2_s._ per lb. In 1285—2_s._ 6_d._ to 3_s._ per lb.; while in 1307, 1 lb. purchased for the King’s Wardrobe cost 9_s._[2189]

[2179] _Blue Book of the Straits Settlements for 1871._

[2180] Already in the Rāmāyana.

[2181] _Cubeba_ from the Arabic _Kabábah_.

[2182] Fig. in Bentley and Trimen’s _Med. Plants_,