582 PIPERACE^. 



The grains of white pepper are of rather larger siz5 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 struc- 

 ture, 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 I'l per cent, on an average, that is to 

 say, considerably less than by black pepper. 



FRUCTUS PIPERIS LONGI. 



r 



urn : Lonci Fewer : F. Poivre long ; G. Langer Pfei> 



Botanical Origin — Piper offi, 



)ffid 



narum Miq.), a dioecious 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 V (Chavica Roxhurghii 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.^ 



History— A drug termed lliTrepi fiuKphv, Piper longum, was known 

 to the ancient Greeks and Romans, and may have been the same as ttie 

 Long Pepper of modern times. 



In the Latin verses bearing the name of Macer rioridus,MvMcn wei'e 



probably written in tlie 10th century, mention is made of Black, W mte, 

 and Long Pepper. The last-named spice, or Macropipcr, is named jy 

 Simon of Genoa,' who was physician to Pope Nicolas IV. and chapiam 

 to Boniface YIII. (a.d. 1288-1303), and travelled in the East tor tn« 

 study of plants. Piper longum is also met with in the list of d^lg^ 

 which (A.D. 1305) duty was levied at Pisa.' Nicolo Conti oMen^^; 

 who lived in India from 1419 to 1444, noticed Long Pepper. 



Sala 

 anion 



dinus* in the middle of the 15th century enumerates long pepper anw ^ 

 the drugs necessary to be kept by apothecaries, and it has had a V 

 in the pharmacopoeias to the present time. 



^ The genus CAavwaseparated from A^r * Choulant, 3fncer Fioridii'i de 



by Mifiuel, has been re-united to it by Ihrbarmd, Lipsi*, 1832. H-*- „ 

 tasmnr de Candollo {Prod. xvi. s. 1). The « Clavis Snnntioim, Venet. l^iv- , j; 



latter genus is now composed of not fewer « Bonaiui, Stotnti inediU 



than (i'JO species ! P/.w, iii. (1857) 492. . r ,•,«, iw 15 



J Fig. in Bentley and Trinien's JOIcd. ^ KunstmMin, Kennfmss In'li^^^ " 



PlantH, part 18 (1877). Jahrhnndert, Miinchen, 1863. 40. 



^or good figures of the t\ro plants, see » See Appendix, 

 lljij^ue s ^rzwey-G^ewac/Ksc, xiv. (1843) tab. 



