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 weak in action. 
Piper officinarum, 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, 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 
