CUBED 149 



dry; odor pronounced, aromatic; taste aromatic, pungent, pepper- 

 like. 



The drug is generally admixed with the flower spikes, which 

 are 2.5 to 15 cm. long and about 2 mm. in diameter, yellowish-brown, 

 and consisting of very small perfect flowers, which are subtended by 

 bracts fringed on the margin with long, multicellular, non-glandular 

 hairs; or the spikes may bear the mature fruits, consisting of some- 

 what cubical or tetragonal, reddish-brown drupes, which are 0.5 to 1 

 mm. in diameter and finely reticulate, somewhat like the seeds of 

 lobelia. 



A few of the jointed stems with swollen nodes are also present. 



Inner Structure. See Fig. 66. 



Powder. (Fig. 66). Grayish-green or greenish-yellow; non- 

 glandular hairs numerous, 1- to 6-celled, varying from 0.2 to 1 mm. 

 in length, with walls 0.002 to 0.004 mm. thick and striate, the apical 

 cell being sharply pointed; numerous globular, yellowish or reddish 

 resin masses in oil glands of leaf; fragments of perianth with fan- 

 shaped upper portion, composed of numerous long, non-glandular 

 hairs, which are much collapsed and deeply striate; seeds reddish- 

 brown and distinctly reticulate. 



Constituents. From 2 to 3 per cent of a volatile oil, containing a 

 stearoptene matico camphor, which appears to be the most important 

 constituent. It also contains an acrid resin, a bitter principle and a 

 crystalline principle artanthic acid. 



Adulterants. The drug is frequently admixed with, or entirely 

 substituted by, other species of Piper. Of these may be mentioned 

 P. camphoriferum (the oil of which contains borneol and camphor), 

 P. lineatum, P. angustifolium Ossanum, P. acutifolium subver- 

 bascifolium, P. molliconum and P. asperifolium. 



Matico has also been substituted by the leaves of Eupatorium 

 glutinosum, Fam. Compositae. The latter are opposite, having a 

 serrate margin and cordate base. (U. S. Dept. Agric.) 



Literature. Thorns, Arbeiten d. Pharm. Institut d. Universitat 

 Berlin, 1910, p. 70. 



CUBEBA. Cubeb Berries. The fruit of Piper Cubeba (Fam. 

 Piperacese), a woody climber, indigenous to Borneo, Java and 

 Sumatra, where it is apparently also cultivated. The fruit is gath- 

 ered when full grown but still green, and carefully dried in the sun, 

 the commercial supplies being shipped from Batavia and Singapore. 



Description. Drupe dry, superior, globular, 4 to 6 mm. in 

 diameter, with a straight, slender peduncle 5 to 7 mm. long; exter- 

 nally dark brown, coarsely reticulate summit with remains of 3 to 



