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PIPER LONGUM. 
Long Pepper. 
For Class, Order, Nat. Ord. and Gen. Char. 
see Piper Nigrum. 
Spec. Char. Leaves cordate, petioled, sessile. 
This species of Piper is a native of the East Indies, and parti- 
cularly abandant in the countries of Malabar, Java, Bengal, and also 
of Nepaul.* The root is perennial ; the stems do not rise to any 
considerable height, they are scandent, shrubby, much branched, 
round, smooth, and slender ; the leaves are commonly cordate, (but 
vary much in size and often in form) pointed, entire, nerved, smooth, 
of a deep green colour, and are placed alternately on the stems upon 
footstalks ; the flowers, which are very small, are produced in ter- 
minal spikes which are nearly cylindrical, the parts of inflorescence, 
though less distinct, resemble those of the Piper Nigrum already 
described ; the fruit consists of very small one-seeded pulpy berries, 
which are green in their immature state, becoming red when ripe. 
In lower India there is a large variety of this species of pepper 
sometimes met with, which we are told by Dr. Ainslie is called in 
Tamool Ana Tipilie, or elephant pepper. 
The fruit of long pepper is said to be most pungent in its 
immature state, it is therefore gathered while green, and dried by the 
heat of the sun, when it changes to a blackish or dark grey colour, 
the spikes are gathered entire, and are usually about one inch and 
a half long. 
Sensible and Chemical Properties, &c. Long pepper 
as imported, is of a dark greyish colour, its taste is intensely hot 
and pungent, but its odour weak and slightly aromatic. According 
to recent analysis the component parts are extractive, starch, a 
coloured gummy matter, Piperin, (a concrete fatty matter, in which 
the pungency of the pepper resides) some saline substances, and a 
* Kirkpatrick's Aocoant of llJepaul, p. 205. 
