ON. A WILD CUBEB FROM. PERAK, “PIPER RIBESIOIDES:. 
By L. WRAY, JUN. 
The true cubeb is the fruit of a pepper called Prper cubeba, and is 
known locally as /ada berekor, or tailed pepper, from each berry having 
a prolongation like a stalk. It is a valuable drug, possessing stimulant 
and diuretic properties.* It yields cubeb oil and the alkaloid cubebine. 
It commands a high price, which leads to its adulteration with the fruits 
of other nearly-allied peppers. One of these adulterants which has found 
its way into the English market has been found to cause nausea and 
diarrhoea, with other symptoms of poisonous action, when taken inter- 
nally. In an attempt to trace this spurious cubeb to its source, I heard 
that a wild pepper was collected in Selama by the Malays, and on going 
there found it to be a cubeb. Mr. Bede Cox kindly procured for me a 
quantity of the fruit, which, together with botanical specimens of the 
plant, were sent to Mr. E. M. Holmes, the Curator of the Museum of the 
Pharmaceutical Society. On comparison with specimens in the herbarium 
of the Natural History Museum at South Kensington, and at Kew, he 
identified it as Pzper ribesioides, Wall. It was not the poisonous variety ; 
that has since been found to come from Java. 
It is thus described in the Flora of British India :— 
“Section I]. CUBEBA. Sfzkes solitary; flowers dizecious ; bracts of 
female spikes peltate. /yazt contracted at the base into a pedicel. 
‘6. PIPER RIBESIOIDES, Wadllich. Pl. As. Kar. 1. 79. t. 9, and Cat. 
6637; quite glabrous, very robust, leaves 8—12 inches, very coriaceous 
linear—or ovate oblong acuminate base deeply cordate 5—9-nerved at 
the very base 3-nerved higher up, petiole 1—2 inches, fruiting spike short, 
stout, pedicel glabrous as long as the globose apiculate fruit. Cas. DC. 
in Prode. 342. Cubeba Wallichii, W/zg. Syst. Pip. 289, and /2/. Pup. 
47, t. 46, 47. (Habitat) Tenasserim, Penang, Singapore and Burma. 
‘A very stout climber; branches pale, as thick as a goosequill, 
deeply furrowed when dry. Leaves variable, sometimes 5 inches, broad, 
basal sinus 1-14 inches deep, lobes rounded equal or not; lanceolate, 
subsagittately cordate. Szkes 1-3 inches; bracts short coriaceous, rachis 
of spike stout, rigid; bracteoles together semilunar. Frat } inch, 
diam.” : 
This wild cubeb is fairly common in some localities in Perak. It 
grows on the plains and low hills, is a climber, and in habit and general 
appearance resembles sirih (Chavica betle). I have collected it in flower 
in April and in fruit in July. Most probably it fruits twice a year, like so 
many other plants in the Straits, in which case the times would be July 
and about the end of December. 
* Cubebs have been in use for many years: they are mentioned by Marco Polo as ex- 
ported from Java at the time of his visit to that island, in about the year A.D. 1290. 
