- 51 - 



The authors suspect that the spurious cubebs consist partly of the 

 fruit of Piper ribesoides, Wall, and partly of an as yet unknown variety of 

 Piper. The latter, when subjected to steam distillation 1 ), yielded 4 p. c. 

 of essential oil of a decided mace odour: d 0,894, « D + 16°, sap. v. 0, 

 ester v. after acetyl. 56,1. Genuine cubebs, distilled for purposes of 

 comparison, yielded more than twice that percentage of oil. with sp. g. 

 0,917, and opt. rot. —43°. 



The behaviour under fractionation of the two distillates also showed 

 marked differences. The oil from the spurious cubebs began to boil 

 below 160°; one-half of it passed over up to 200°, and a further 30 p. c. 

 between 200 and 270°. On the other hand, of the oil from the genuine 

 cubebs, only 5 p. c. passed over below 200°, 85 p. c. passing over bet- 

 ween 200 and 270°. 



The surmise that the false fruits might be identical with those of 

 Piper Lowong, Bl., which were distilled by Peinemann 2 ) several years ago^ 

 proved to be unfounded, the microscopical structure of the two piper- 

 species being entirely different. Umney and Potter conclude that certain 

 of the abnormal oils of commerce are produced from mixtures of the 

 genuine berries either with this hitherto unidentified, or with other varieties. 

 This would also explain the abnormality of the Amsterdam oil referred to 

 at the beginning of this paragraph. 



). Small 3 ), and E. M. Holmes 4 ) also give their views on the same sub- 

 ject. Small has examined several authentic samples of genuine and spu- 

 rious cubebs, placed at his disposal by the Herbarium and the Museum 

 in London of the Pharmaceutical Society, and, basing himself upon his 

 observations on these, has examined a number of commercial samples. 

 Among genuine cubebs, Small examined several varieties of Piper Citbeba, 

 among them P. C. var. Rinoe Katoentjar and P. C. var. Einoe tjaloeroelc; 

 among the spurious fruits were P C. var. Rinoe badah, Piper ribesioides, Wall, 

 and Piper crassipes, Korth. Out of five commercial samples, four proved 

 to be heavily adulterated with fruits of Rinoe badah. Holmes calls par- 

 ticular attention to the poisonous character of Rinoe badah, which is a 

 native of Java and is there regarded as a genuine cubeb. It is easily 

 detected by its mace-like odour and by the sulphuric acid test mentioned 

 above. 



In addition to those already mentioned by Small, Holmes cites the 

 following plants as producing spurious cubebs: Piper Loicong, Blume, P. 

 venosum, C. D. C. and P. mollissimum, Blume, also Tethr anther a citrata, 

 Bridelia tomentosa, and Rhamnus- species. The fruits of Piper mollissimum 

 are known in Java as Keboe-Cubebs. The berries of P. ribesioides have a 



x ) Perfum. and Essent. Oil Record 3 (1912), 64. 



2 ) Arch, der Pharm. 234 (1896), 238. 



3 ) Pharmaceutical Journ. 88 (1912), 639. 



*) Perfum. and Essent. Oil Record 3 (1912), 125. 



4 * 



