584 PIPERACEiE. 



of pipeiin; 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 8^- 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 3,866 cwt., of which only 447 cwt. Avere shipped to 

 the United Kingdom, the remainder being sent chiefly to British India.^ 

 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 oi Piper longum, called in Sanskrit Pipiiali-mula^ 

 (whence the modern name inpli-niM), is a favourite remedy of the 

 Hindus and also known to the Persians and Arabs. 



CUBEBiE. 



Fructus vel Baccce vel Piper Cuhehce,^; Ciihehs; F. Cubebes; 

 G. Cubeben. 



Botanical Origin — Piper Gubeba Linn. £ (Cubeba offi-cinalis Miq.j, 

 a climbing, woody, dioecious shrub, indigenous to Java, Southern Borneo 

 and Sumatra.* 



History — Cubebs have been introduced into medicine by the 

 Arabian physicians of the middle ages, who desci'ibe them as having 

 the form, colour, and properties of pepper. Masudi^ in the 10th 

 century stated them to be a production of Java. Edrisi,* 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 

 beefinninor 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.'^ 



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.* Duty was levied upon them as Cubebas 

 silvestres at Barcelona in 1271." They are mentioned about this period 

 as sold in the fairs of Champagne in France, the price being 4 sous per 

 lb.^° They were also sold in England: in accounts under date 1284 



^ Blue Bool: of the Straits Settlements for ' Meyer, Geschichte der Bolanik, iii. 537 . 



1871. * Munimenta Gildhallce Londoniensk; 



2 Already in the Kamayana. Libei- albus, i. (1859, State papers) 230. 



^ Cubeba from the Arabic Kabdbah. " Capmany, Memorias sobre la Marina, 



* Fig. in Bentley and Trimen's Med. e^c, (?e jRarce/o??a, i. (Madrid, 1779) 44. 



Plants, part 27 (1877). " Bourquelot, Etudes sur lesfoires de la 



^ Les Prairies d'or, i. 341. Champagne, M6moires etc. de Vlnstitut, v, 



« Gcofjraplde, trad, par Janbert, i. 51. 89. (1865) 288. 



