PIPER. 
496 
ing this fubftance with other vegetable principles, parti¬ 
cularly with refins, Mr. Pelletier concludes by considering 
it a peculiar fubftance, and names it piperine. The fatty 
matter, left after extracting the piperine, is folid at a tem¬ 
perature near 32 0 , but liquefies at a flight hear. It has an 
extremely bitter and acrid tafte ; it is very flightly volatile, 
and tends rather to decompofe than rile in vapour: that 
which pafi'es over is not fo acrid as the undiftilled part, 
but is more balfamic. It diflblves eafily in alcohol and 
ether, and unites to fatty bodies; and, with the exception 
of its tafte, does not differ from them. From the refult of 
the diltillation, it may be confidered as corr.pofed of two 
oils : one, volatile and balfamic ; the other, more fixed, 
and containing the acridnefs of the pepper. Finally, Mr. 
Pelletier finds in pepper, 1, pipeline ; 2, a very acrid 
concrete oil; 3, a volatile balfamic oil; 4, a gummy co¬ 
loured matter; 5, an extractive principle ; 6, malic and 
tartaric acids; 7, ftarch ; 8, bafforine ; 9, lignine; 10, 
earthy and alkaline falts. He concludes, alfo, that there 
is no vegetable alkali in pepper; that the cryftalline fub¬ 
ftance of pepper is a peculiar body 5 that pepper owes its 
tafte to an oil but little volatile ; and that a ftrong fimilar- 
ityexifts between common pepper and cubebs, as illuf- 
trated by the analyfis of Mr. Vauquelin, of the latter com¬ 
pared w ith the former. Annales de Cliimie , vol. xvi. p. 337. 
( 3 . Loureiro has a fpecies, which he calls Piper fylveftre, 
growing wild in the woods of Cochinchina, but not ap¬ 
plied to any purpofe. He fufpeCfs it to be the fame with 
Pipercaninum of Rumphius. 
y. He has alfo a fecond fpecies, with pinnate leaves, 
confiding of three pairs of leaflets ; which he therefore 
\ names Piper pinnatum. The Hera is ereft and prickly. 
He propofes this fpecies with doubt, becaufe he had no 
opportunity of examining the plant whilft it was in flower. 
In China, where it grows naturally, both leaves and fruit 
are applied to culinary ufes : it is alfo ufed medicinally. 
a. Piper betle, or betel : leaves fomewhat oblong, acu¬ 
minate, leven-nerved ; petioles two-toothed. Stem 
fhrubby, manifold, very long, trailing and rooting at the 
joints. Leaves unequal at the bale, curved in, veined, 
fhining, alternate, aromatic, hottifh ; the petioles feldom 
two-toothed. Spike flender, long, folid : peduncle foli- 
tary, fimple, oppofite to the leaf. Stigmas four or five, 
linear, feflile, fpreading out. Berries flatted-angular, 
united, half-concealed, inleparable. Native of the Eaft 
Indies. 
It is the leaf of this fpecies of pepper-plant which is 
called betle, or betel, and ferves to inclofe a few flices or 
bits of "the areca, thence erroneoufly called the betel-nut. 
Thefe, together with a little chunam, or fliell-lime, are 
what thel'outhern Afiatics lo univerfally chew to fweeten 
the breath and ftrengthen the ftomach : the lower people 
there life it as ours do tobacco in Europe, to keep off’ the 
calls of hunger. The women of Canara, on the Malabar 
coaft, ftain their teeth black with antimony, and thus pre- 
ferve them good to old age ; wdiereas the contrary is the 
cafe with the men, who ruin theirs by the betel, and the 
chunam, or lime, w-hich they take along with it. Ulloa 
afi’errs that the-coca (or koka) of Peru is the fame with 
the betel. Betel is tiled not only as an article of luxury, 
but as a kind, of ceremonial which regulates the inter- 
courle of the more poliftied clafles of the eaft When any 
perfon of confideration waits on another, after the firft 
ialutations, betel is prefented as a token of politenels: 
to omit it, on the one part, would be confidered negledl, 
and its rejection would be judged an affront on the 
other. No one of inferior rank fhould addrefs a dignified 
individual without the previous precaution of chewing 
betel; two people feldom meet without exchanging it; 
and it is always offered on the ceremonious interviews of 
public miflionaries. In iome countries, it is not un¬ 
common for the gueft, who receives the betel from his 
holt, to pafs it between his thumb and fore-finger, and 
apply his own chunam, wdiich never gives offence ; and is 
thought to have originated in-guarding a itranger againft 
the infidious conveyance of poifon, formerly too fre¬ 
quently pradfifed in deftroying perfons who were 
obnoxious. See Areca, vol. ii. p. 138-9. 
Mahometans abftain from this indulgence dtiring the 
fall of Ramadan, though polfibly not in every country, 
as it would be too great a privation ; and the ufe of it is 
fo interwoven with the exiftence of the natives of the 
warmer climates, that females of the higher ranks are faid 
to pafs their lives in doing little elfe than chewing betel. 
When the Cingalele retire to. reft at night, they fill their 
mouths with it, and retain it there until they awake. 
According to Knox, who paffed many years in captivity 
on the ifland of Ceylon, moft people going abroad carry 
a fmall box of gold or filver, containing the ingredients 
for compounding betel: and the poor keep a conftant 
fupply about them in purfes of coloured ftraw, fecurely 
lodged in a fold of their garments. The ftand or box 
containing it is often the fubjedf of elegant workmanfhip ; 
it confifts of filver, gold, or tortoifefhell, and forms a piece 
of ornamental furniture in the houfes of the wealthy. It 
is fufficiently valuable to conftitute a prefent between 
fovereigns. 
Betel is a very confiderable article of traffic in India 
and China; and, indeed, throughout Alia. In the 
Britiffi fettlements of Bombay, Madras and Bengal, the 
value of the imports amounted in a Angle year to 138,836!. 
and, if the quantities confumed throughout the Eaft are 
taken into view, it will appear furprifing how they can 
be obtained. But owing to the conftant and extenfive 
demand, the plants affording the neceflary ingredients 
are carefully cultivated; and multitudes are employed 
and fublilted in the production of this eaftern luxury. 
3. Piper cubeba, or cubebs: leaves obliquely ovate or 
oblong, veined, acute ; fpike folitary ; peduncles oppofite 
to the leaf; fruits pedicelled. This is a very fmooth ffirub, 
with a jointed flexuofe Hera. Leaves tnoftly oblong, 
feldom ovate or lanceolate; not tender, as in moft fpecies 
of this genus, quite entire, petioled, veined; the veins 
fimple, alternate; the margin of the leaf does not run 
dowrn fo far on one fide as on the other. Spikes folitary, 
peduncled, fliort, on which are thofe pedicelled berries 
known in the ftiops and the kitchen by the name of 
cubebs. 
Native of the ifland of Java, in woods. Bergius alfo 
communicated it from Guinea. At the former place it 
appears to have been attended with wonderful fuccefs in 
the cure of gonorrhoea. The following account is 
from Mr. Crawfurd, a furgeon in the Eaft-India 
Company’s fervice. “ The pepper, well pounded, is 
exhibited in a little water, five or fix times a-day, in the 
quantity of a defert-fpoonful, or about three drachms. 
It is unneceflary to remark, that abftinence from wine and 
all heating aliment is proper. The ardor urinte ceafes, 
the difcharge grows ropy, commonly in forty-eight hours, 
and frequently in lefs; and the difeafe ceafes altogether 
foon after. Thefe, of courfe, are the moft fuccefsful 
effefts of the medicine. In fome cafes, the cure is flower; 
in a few, it has been faid to produce fwelled tefticle; and, 
in a ftill fmaller number, it has been found altogether 
inefteCIual. The fenfible effeCls of the medicine are 
exceedingly mild. It occalions, though not always, a 
flight purging; it imparts to the urine its own peculiar 
odour, and it promotes its quantity. Now' and then it 
occaflons a flufhing of the face, and a burning heat in the 
palms of the hands and foies of the feet. With refpeft 
to the cubeb itfelf, it is the produce of the ifland of Java 
only, for it is not known even in any of the reft of the 
oriental iflands. In the Javanefe language it is called 
cumuctis. By the natives of Java it is ufed in fome 
difeafes of children, but never in gonorrhoea. In Bengal, 
into which it is imported from Java, it is ufed in medicine; 
and it would appear, from what has been already ftated, 
in gonorrhoea; but, whether generally in this laft, I 
cannot fay. The European praftitioners of that country 
are, at all events, ignorant of its ufe in the diforder. I 
have 
