316 SPICES 



CHAP. 



Uses. Long pepper contains the same principles as 

 black pepper, a volatile oil, resin and piperin, and it is 

 used ground up as a spice in the same way as ground 

 pepper, chiefly by natives. 



As a drug, both the spikes and the dried root and 

 shoots are used by natives. Like black pepper, it has 

 practically gone out of the European Pharmacopoeia, 

 except an occasional use as a stimulant in compound 

 medicines. In native medicines it is especially valued 

 in coughs and catarrhs, and usually mixed with honey 

 for these complaints. It is valued also in indigestion 

 and colic, possessing stimulant and carminative pro- 

 perties similar to those of black pepper, but more 

 powerful, and also by Indians in paralysis, tetanus, and 

 apoplexy, as a liniment for snake-bite, and in the form 

 of a snuff for coma and drowsiness. The roots are used 

 for the same purposes, but are considered w r eak in action. 



Piper afficinarum, L., JAVANESE LONG PEPPER, 

 CHABEI (MALAY) 



This long pepper differs from the Indian long pepper 

 in its leaves not being cordate or deeply incised at the 

 base. The lower leaves are lanceolate acuminate at the 

 tip, with a rounded but entire base ; they are smooth, 

 dark green above and pale beneath, 3 in. long, 1^ in. 

 wide, with a petiole ^ in. long. The upper leaves are 

 much larger ovate, 6 in. across and a little longer, the 

 base rounded, broad, the tip acute. The stem is about 

 ^ in. thick, and grey in colour. The inflorescence is 

 much like that of the Indian long pepper, but the spike 

 is less broad at the base and the tip less blunt. When 

 ripe it is red, and when dry it is of the same grey 

 colour as the Indian one, but more pungent. Otherwise 

 it is almost exactly like it. 



It is grown from cuttings, and, if allowed, would 

 climb very high. The Javanese train it to a stake, and 

 prune it back to about 5 ft. from the ground. Unless 

 this is done they say it would never flower. When 



