1040 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 
Drug Used, Its Collection, Preservation, Etc. 
The drug recognized by the ninth revised edition of the 
United States Pharmacopoeia is “the dried, unripe fruits of 
Piper Cubeba Linne filius (Fam. Piperaceae), without the pres¬ 
ence or admixture of more than 5 per cent of stems or other 
foreign matter. ” Other botanical synonyms for the same fre¬ 
quently met with in the literature are: Cubeba Cubeba (Linne 
filius) Lyons; and Cubeba officinalis Mique. 
The fruit is supposedly gathered when full grown, but before 
ripe, and is immediately packed for exportation. That some 
of the fruit for sale on the American market is not collected 
until after ripening would appear to be the case from the color 
of some of the oleoresins prepared by the author, a condition 
which has also been noted by the others. 1 In addition, it should 
also be noted that the so-called false cubebs 2 are sometimes sub¬ 
stituted for the official drug. 
As cubeb gradually deteriorates with age, 3 and in the 
powdered condition becomes rapidly weaker owing to the loss 
of volatile oil, it should be stored whole, in closed containers, 
and powdered only as it is used. 
U. S. P. Text and Comments Thereon. 
The oleoresin has been official in the last seven editions of the 
Pharmacopoeia, having been recognized for the first time in the 
edition of 1850 under the title Extractum Cubebae Fluidum. 
1850 
Extractum Cubebae Fluidum 
Fluid Extract of Cubebs 
Take of Cubebs , 1 in powder , 2 a pound; then distill off, by means of a water- 
Ether 3 a sufficient quantity. bath, at a gentle heat, a pint and a 
Put the Cubebs into a percolator , 4 * half of the ether , 6 and expose the 
and, having packed it carefully, pour residue, in a shallow vessel, until the 
Ether gradually upon it until two whole of the ether has evaporated . 7 
pints of filtered liquor are obtained ; 6 
1 Emanuel (1894) stated that when he reported to the jobber that he had 
obtained a brown colored oleoresin from the cubeb purchased, the latter 
replied that, while the United States Pharmacopoeia specified the unripe fruit, 
this was rarely found on the market. 
2 The botanical origin of this fruit is not known. Culbreth, Materia Medica 
and Pharmacology (1908), p. 138. 
3 The volatile oil, in part, is converted into the so-called cubeb camphor, 
especially when stored in a damp place. Schmidt, Ber. d. deutsch chem. 
Ges. (1877), 10, p. 188. 
