574 BOTANY AND PHARMACOGNOSY. 



and the drupes are less aromatic and pungent than the official 

 pepper. In structure long pepper is distinguished by the absence 

 of oil cells in the sarcocarp, and " beaker cells " of the endocarp, 

 and the larger starch grains (2 to lo /a) in the perisperm. Long 

 pepper yields about i per cent, of a volatile oil with the pungent 

 taste of the oil of pepper but an odor resembling that of ginger ; 

 and about 4.24 per cent, of piperine. 



Long pepper is also obtained from Piper ofUcinariim, of Java, 

 India and the Philippine Islands ; Piper sylvaticum, of Eastern 

 India ; Chavica oificinarmn, of the West Indies ; and Peperomia 

 acuminata, of Peru. 



Adulterants. The poorer black peppers, known as Acheen 

 pepper, are light in weight, consist more or less of shells and 

 are usually considerably broken. They are frequently contam- 

 inated with stems, earth and small stones. Penang white 

 PEPPER has a grayish color and is coated with a substance con- 

 taining considerable calcium carbonate. Pepper hulls or pepper 

 shells, representing the broken pericarp of the fruit obtained in 

 the preparation of white pepper, consist of small grayish-black 

 fragments, containing numerous stone cells, and they yield a 

 high percentage of fiber and ash. 



Substitutes. The fruit of Embelia rihes (Fam. Myrsin- 

 acese), a small tree of India, has been used as an adulterant of 

 both pepper and cubeb. The blackish drupes resemble black pep- 

 per. They are very aromatic and yield a principle, embelic acid, 

 which crystallizes in golden-yellow prisms, the alcoholic solution 

 of which is colored red with ammonia. 



The fruit of Polyadcnia pipcricarpa (Fam. Lauraceae), of 

 Sumatra, is also used in place of pepper. The fruits of a number 

 of species of Xylopia (Fam. Anonacese) contain aromatic and 

 bitter principles, some of these being used as a condiment like 

 pepper, as A', crthiopica, which are also used as a medium of 

 exchange by the natives of Uadai (Africa), and A^. grandiHora, 

 X. sericea and X. fnitcsccns of Brazil. A', aromatica yields the 

 Guinea pepper. 



PIMENTA. ALLSPICE. The fruit of Pimenta officinalis 

 (Fam. Myrtaceae), a tree (p. 347) indigenous to the West Indies, 

 Mexico, Central America and Venezuela, where it is also culti- 



