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Cubeb

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Plants

                    iCubeb
           Scientific classification

   Kingdom:  Plantae
   Division: Magnoliophyta
   Class:    Magnoliopsida
   Order:    Piperales
   Family:   Piperaceae
   Genus:    Piper
   Species:  P. cubeba

                                Binomial name

   Piper cubeba
   L.

   Cubeb (Piper cubeba), or tailed pepper, is a plant in genus Piper,
   cultivated for its fruit and essential oil. It is mostly grown in Java
   and Sumatra, hence sometimes called Java pepper. The fruits are
   gathered before they are ripe, and carefully dried. Commercial cubebs
   consist of the dried berries, similar in appearance to black pepper,
   but with stalks attached — the "tails" in "tailed pepper". The dried
   pericarp is grayish-brown, or black and wrinkled. The seed, when
   present, is hard, white and oily. The odour of cubebs is described as
   agreeable and aromatic. The taste, pungent, acrid, slightly bitter and
   persistent.

   Cubeb came to Europe via India through the trade with the Arabs. The
   name cubeb comes from Arabic kababah (كبابة) which is of unknown
   origin, by way of Old French quibibes. Cubeb is mentioned in alchemical
   writings by its Arabic name. In his Theatrum Botanicum, John Parkinson
   tells that the king of Portugal prohibited the sale of cubeb in order
   to promote the black pepper (Piper nigrum) around 1640. It experienced
   a brief resurgence in 19th century Europe for medicinal uses, but has
   practically vanished from the European market since. It continues to be
   used as a flavoring agent for gins and cigarettes in the West, and as a
   seasoning for food in Indonesia and Africa.

History

   In the 4th century BC, Theophrastus mentioned komakon, joining it with
   cinnamon and cassia as an ingredient in aromatic confections. Guillaume
   Budé and Claudius Salmasius have identified komakon with cubeb,
   probably due to the resemblance which the word bears to the Javanese
   name of cubeb, kumukus. This is seen as a curious evidence of Greek
   trade with Java in a time earlier than that of Theophrastus. It is
   unlikely Greeks acquired them from somewhere else, since Javanese
   growers protected their monopoly of the trade by sterilizing the
   berries by scalding, ensuring that the vines were unable to be
   cultivated elsewhere.

   In the Tang Dynasty, cubeb was brought to China from Srivijaya. In
   India the spice came to be called kabab chini, that is, "Chinese
   cubeb," possibly because the Chinese had a hand in its trade, but more
   likely because it was an important item in the trade with China. In
   China this pepper was called both vilenga, and vidanga, the cognate
   Sanskrit word. Li Hsun thought it grew on the same tree as black
   pepper. The physicians of Tang administered it to restore appetite, to
   cure "demon vapors", to darken the hair, and to perfume the body.
   However, there is no evidence showing that cubeb was used as a
   condiment in China.

   The Book of One Thousand and One Nights, compiled in the 9th century,
   mentions cubeb as a remedy for infertility, showing it was already used
   by Arabs for medicinal purpose. Cubeb was introduced to Arabic cuisine
   around 10th century. The Travels of Marco Polo, written in late 13th
   century, describes Java as a producer of cubeb, along with other
   valuable spices. In 14th century, cubeb was imported into Europe from
   the Grain Coast, under the name of pepper, by merchants of Rouen and
   Lippe. A 14th century moral tale exemplifying gluttony by the
   Franciscan writer Francesc Eiximenis describes the eating habits of a
   worldly cleric who consumes a bizarre concoction of egg yolks with
   cinnamon and cubeb after his baths, probably intended as an
   aphrodisiac.

   Cubeb was thought to be repulsive to demons in Europe as it was in
   China. Ludovico Maria Sinistrari, a Catholic priest who wrote about
   methods of exorcism in the late 17th century, includes cubeb as an
   ingredient in making an incense that wards off incubus. Even today, his
   formula of the incense is quoted by neopagan authors, some of whom also
   claim that cubeb can be used in love sachets and spells.

   After the prohibition of sale, culinary use of cubeb dramatically
   decreased in Europe and only its medicinal application continued to the
   19th century. In the early 20th century, cubeb was regularly shipped
   from Indonesia to Europe and the United States. The trade gradually
   diminished to an average of 135 ton annually, and practically ceased
   after 1940. Now most cubeb produced is consumed in the country of
   origin.

Chemistry

   The dried cubeb berries contain essential oil consisting monoterpenes (
   sabinene 50%, α-thujene, carene, 1,4-cineol and 1,8-cineol) and
   sesquiterpenes ( caryophyllene, copaene, α- and β-cubebene, δ-
   cadinene, cubebol, germacrene).

   About 15% of a volatile oil is obtained by distilling cubebs with
   water. After rectification with water, or on keeping, this deposits
   rhombic crystals of camphor of cubebs (C[15]H[60]). Cubebene, the
   liquid portion, has the formula C[15]H[24]. Cubebin (C[10]H[10]O[3]) is
   a crystalline substance existing in cubebs, discovered by Eugène
   Soubeiran and Capitaine in 1839. It may be prepared from cubebene, or
   from the pulp left after the distillation of the oil. The drug, along
   with gum, fatty oils, and malates of magnesium and calcium, contains
   also about 1% of cubebic acid, and about 6% of a resin. The dose of the
   fruit is 30 to 60 grains, and the British Pharmacopoeia contains a
   tincture with a dose of 4 to 1 dram.

Use

Medicinal

   In India, Sanskrit texts included cubeb in various remedies. Charaka
   and Sushruta prescribed a paste of cubebs as a mouthwash, or dried
   cubebs internally for oral and dental diseases, loss of voice,
   halitosis, fevers, cough. Unani physicians use a paste of the cubeb
   berries externally on male and female genitals to intensify sexual
   pleasure during coitus. Due to this attributed property cubebs were
   called "Habb-ul-Uruus".

   In traditional Chinese medicine cubeb is used for its alleged warming
   property. In Tibetan medicine, cubeb (ka ko la in Tibetan) is one of
   bzang po drug, six fine herbs beneficial to specific organs in the
   body. Cubeb is assigned for the spleen.

   The Arabian physicians in the Middle Ages were usually versed in
   alchemy, and cubeb was used, under the name kababa, when preparing the
   water of al butm. The Book of One Thousand and One Nights, mentions
   cubeb as a main ingredient in making an aphrodisiac remedy for
   infertility:

     He took two ounces of Chinese cubebs, one ounce of fat extract of
     Ionian hemp, one ounce of fresh cloves, one ounce of red cinnamon
     from Sarandib, ten drachms of white Malabar cardamoms, five of
     Indian ginger, five of white pepper, five of pimento from the isles,
     one ounce of the berries of Indian star-anise, and half an ounce of
     mountain thyme. Then he mixed cunningly, after having pounded and
     sieved them; he added pure honey until the whole became a thick
     paste; then he mingled five grains of musk and an ounce of pounded
     fish roe with the rest. Finally he added a little concentrated
     rose-water and put all in the bowel.

   The mixture, called "seed-thickener", is given to Shams-al-Din, a
   wealthy merchant who had no child, with the instruction that he must
   eat the paste two hours before having sexual intercourse with his wife.
   According to the story, the merchant did get the child he desired after
   following the instruction. Other Arab authors wrote that cubebs
   rendered the breath fragrant, cured affections of the bladder, and that
   eating cubebs "enhances the delight of coitus".

   In 1654, Nicholas Culpeper wrote in the London Dispensatorie that
   cubebs were "hot and dry in the third degree... (snip) they cleanse the
   head of flegm and strenghthen the brain, they heat the stomach and
   provoke lust". A later edition in 1826 informed the reader that "the
   Arabs call them Quabebe, and Quabebe Chine: they grow plentifully in
   Java, they stir up venery. (snip) ...and are very profitable for cold
   griefs of the womb".

   The modern employment of cubeb in England as a drug dates from 1815.
   There were various preparations of cubebs including oleum cubebae (oil
   of cubebs), tinctures, fluid extracts, oleo-resin compounds and vapors,
   which was used for throat complaints. A small percentage of cubebs were
   commonly included in lozenges designed for use in bronchitis, in which
   the antiseptic and expectoral properties of the drug are useful. But
   the most important therapeutic application of this drug was in
   gonorrhea, where its antiseptic action was of much value. William Wyatt
   Squire wrote in 1908 that cubebs "act specifically on genito-urinary
   mucous membrane. (They are) given in all stages of gonorrhea" . As
   compared with copaiba in this connection cubebs has the advantages of
   being less disagreeable to take and somewhat less likely to disturb the
   digestive apparatus in prolonged administration.

   The volatile oil, oleum cubebae, was the form in which cubeb is most
   commonly used as a drug, the dose being 5 to 20 minims, which may be
   suspended in mucilage or given after meals in a wafer. The drug had the
   typical actions of a volatile oil, but exerted some of them in an
   exceptional degree — thus it was liable to cause a cutaneous erythema
   in the course of its excretion by the skin, had a marked diuretic
   action, and was a fairly efficient disinfectant of the urinary
   passages. Its administration caused the appearance in the urine of a
   salt of cubebic acid which was precipitated by heat or nitric acid, and
   was therefore liable to be mistaken for albumin, when these two most
   common tests for the occurrence of albuminuria were applied.

   The National Botanic Pharmacopoeia printed in 1921 tells that cubebs
   were "an excellent remedy for flour albus or whites."

Culinary

   In Europe, cubeb was one of the valuable spices during the Middle Age.
   It was ground as a seasoning for meat, or used in sauces. A medieval
   recipe includes cubeb in making "sauce sarcenes", which consists of
   almond milk and several spices. Also as an aromatic confectionary,
   cubeb was often candied and eaten whole. Candied cubeb is mentioned in
   Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow, set in 1940s:

     Under its tamarind glaze, the Mills bomb turns out to be luscious
     pepsin-flavored nougat, chock-full of tangy candied cubeb berries,
     and a chewy camphor-gum centre. It is unspeakably awful. Slothrop's
     head begins to reel with camphor fumes, his eyes are running, his
     tongue's a hopeless holocaust. Cubeb? He used to smoke that stuff.
     "Poisoned..." he is able to croak.
     "Show a little backbone," advises Mrs. Quoad.

   While the same novelist's Against the Day, set, in part, in the 1880s,
   relates the smoking of cubeb early in the novel between the characters
   Darby Suckling and Chick Counterfly.

   Cubeb reached Africa through Arabs. In Moroccan cuisine, cubeb is used
   in savory dishes and in pastries like markouts, little diamonds of
   semolina with honey and dates. Cubeb is sometimes included in the list
   of ingredients for the famed spice mixture Ras el hanout. In West
   Africa, cubeb turns up in dishes like stews of Benin, where its use is
   so frequent it is referred to as piment pays, pepper of the country. In
   Indonesian cuisine, especially in Indonesian gulés (curries), cubeb is
   used. Ocet Kubebowy, the vinegar infused with cubeb, cumin and garlic
   was used for meat marinades in Poland during the 14th century.

Cigarettes and spirits

   A Victorian advertisement for Dr. Perrin's Medicated Cubeb Cigarettes.
   Enlarge
   A Victorian advertisement for Dr. Perrin's Medicated Cubeb Cigarettes.

   Cubebs were frequently used in the form of cigarettes for asthma,
   chronic pharyngitis and hay fever. Edgar Rice Burroughs, being fond of
   smoking cubeb cigarettes, humorously stated that if he had not smoked
   so many cubebs, there might never have been Tarzan. "Marshall's
   Prepared Cubeb Cigarettes" was a popular brand with enough sales to
   still be made during World War Two. Sometimes Marijuana users claimed
   that smoking Marijuana is no more harmful than smoking cubeb.

   Cubeb oil was included in the list of ingredients found in cigarettes,
   published by Tobacco Prevention and Control Branch of NC Department of
   Health and Human Services.

   Bombay Sapphire gin is flavored with botanicals including cubebs and
   grains of paradise. The brand was launched in 1987, but its maker
   claims that it is based on a secret recipe dating to 1761. Pertsovka, a
   dark brown Russian pepper vodka with a burning taste, is prepared from
   infusion of cubeb and capsicum peppers.

Other

   Cubeb is sometimes used to adulterate the essential oil of Patchouli,
   which requires caution for Patchouli users. Cubeb berries are used in
   love-drawing magic spells by practitioners of hoodoo, an
   African-American form of folk magic.

   In 2000, the well-known Japanese cosmetics company Shiseido patented
   formulas of anti-aging products made from several herbs including
   cubebs.

   In 2001, the Switzerland-based company Firmenich patented cubebol, a
   compound found in cubeb oil, as a cooling and refreshing agent. The
   patent describes application of cubebol as a refreshing agent in
   various products, ranging from chewing gum to sorbet, drink,
   toothpaste, and gelatin-based confectionery.
   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cubeb"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
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