_Piper longum_; _Long Pepper_; F. _Poivre long_; G. _Langer Pfeffer_.
=Botanical Origin=—_Piper officinarum_ C. DC. (_Chavica[2170]
officinarum_ Miq.), a diœcious shrubby plant, with ovate-oblong
acuminate leaves, attenuated at the base, and having pinnate nerves.
It is a native of the Indian Archipelago, as Java, Sumatra, Celebes
and Timor. Long pepper is the fruit spike, collected and dried shortly
before it reaches maturity.
_Piper longum_ L.[2171] (_Chavica Roxburghii_ Miq.), a shrub indigenous
to Malabar, Ceylon, Eastern Bengal, Timor and the Philippines, also
yields long pepper, for the sake of which it is cultivated along the
eastern and western coasts of India. It may be distinguished from the
previous species by its 5-nerved leaves, cordate at the base.[2172]
=History=—A drug termed Πέπερι μακρὸν, _Piper longum_, was known to
the ancient Greeks and Romans, and may have been the same as the _Long
Pepper_ of modern times.
In the Latin verses bearing the name of Macer Floridus,[2173] which
were probably written in the 10th century, mention is made of Black,
White, and Long Pepper. The last named spice, or _Macropiper_, is
named by Simon of Genoa,[2174] who was physician to Pope Nicolas IV.
and chaplain to Boniface VIII. (A.D. 1288-1303), and travelled in the
East for the study of plants. Piper longum is also met with in the
list of drugs on which (A.D. 1305) duty was levied at Pisa.[2175]
Nicolo Conti of Venice, who lived in India from 1419 to 1444, noticed
Long Pepper.[2176] Saladinus[2177] in the middle of the 15th century
enumerates long pepper among the drugs necessary to be kept by
apothecaries and it has had a place in the pharmacopœias to the present
time.
[2170] The genus _Chavica_ separated from _Piper_ by Miquel, has been
re-united to it by Casimir de Candolle (_Prod._ xvi. s. 1). The latter
genus is now composed of not fewer than 620 species!
[2171] Fig. in Bentley and Trimen’s _Med. Plants_, part 18 (1877).
[2172] For good figures of the two plants, see Hayne’s
_Arzney-Gewächse_, xiv. (1843) tab. 20. 21.
[2173] Choulant, _Macer Floridus de Viribus Herbarum_, Lipsiæ, 1832.
114.
[2174] _Clavis Sanationis_, Venet. 1510.
[2175] Bonaini, _Statuti inediti della città di Pisa_, iii. (1857) 492.
[2176] Kunstmann, _Kenntniss Indiens im 15ᵗᵉⁿ Jahrhundert_, München,
1863. 40.
[2177] See Appendix.
=Production=—In Bengal the plants are cultivated by suckers, and
require to be grown on a rich, high and dry soil; they should be set
about five feet asunder. An English acre will yield in the first year
about three maunds (1 maund = 80 lbs.) of the pepper, in the second
twelve, and in the third eighteen; after which, as the plant becomes
less and less productive, the roots are grubbed up, dried, and sold
as _Pipli-múl_, of which there is a large consumption in India as a
medicine. The pepper is gathered in the month of January, when full
grown, and exposed to the sun until perfectly dry. After the fruit has
been collected, the stem and branches die down to the ground.[2178]
[2178] Roxburgh, _Flora Indica_, i. (1832) 155.
=Description=—Long pepper consists of a multitude of minute baccate
fruits, closely packed around a common axis, the whole forming a
spike of 1½ inch long and ¼ of an inch thick. The spike is supported
on a stalk ½ an inch long; it is rounded above and below, and tapers
slightly towards its upper end. The fruits are ovoid, ⅒ of an inch
long, crowned with a nipple-like point (the remains of the stigma), and
arranged spirally with a small peltate bract beneath each. A transverse
section of a spike exhibits 8 to 10 separate fruits, disposed radially
with their narrower end pointed towards the axis. Beneath the pericarp,
the thin brown testa encloses a colourless albumen, of which the
obtuser end is occupied by the small embryo.
The long pepper of the shops is greyish-white, and appears as if it
had been rolled in some earthy powder. When washed, the spikes acquire
their proper colour,—a deep reddish-brown. The drug has a burning
aromatic taste, and an agreeable but not powerful odour.
The foregoing description applies to the long pepper of English
commerce, which is now obtained chiefly from Java (see next page),
where _P. officinarum_ is the common species. In fact the fruits of
this latter, as presented to us by Mr. Binnendyk, of the Botanical
Garden, Buitenzorg, near Batavia, offer no characters by which we can
distinguish them from the article found in the London shops. Those of
_P. Betle_ L. var. γ. _densum_ are extremely similar, but we do not
know that they are collected for use.
=Microscopic Structure=—The structure of the individual fruits
resembles that of black pepper, exhibiting however some characteristic
differences. The epicarp has on the outside, tangentially-extended,
thick-walled, narrow cells, containing gum; the middle layer consists
of wider, thin-walled, obviously porous parenchyme containing starch
and drops of oil. In the outer and middle layers of the fruit numerous
large thick-walled cells are scattered, as in the external pericarp
of _Piper nigrum_; in long pepper, however, they do not form a close
circle. The inner pericarp is formed of a row of large, cubic or
elongated, radially-arranged cells, filled with volatile oil. A row
of smaller tangentially-extended cells separates these oil-cells
from the compact brown-red testa, which consists of lignified cells
like the inner layer of the testa of black pepper, but without the
thick-walled cells peculiar to the latter. The albumen of long pepper
is distinguished from that of black pepper by the absence of volatile
oil.
=Chemical Constituents=—The constituents of long pepper appear to
be the same as those of black pepper. We ascertained the presence of
piperin; 8 pounds of the drug were not sufficient to afford us an
appreciable quantity of the volatile oil. The resin and volatile oil
reside exclusively in the pericarp. Long pepper, according to Blyth
(1874), yields 8⅓ per cent. of ash.
=Commerce=—Long pepper is at present exported from Penang and
Singapore, whither it is brought chiefly from Java, and to a much
smaller extent from Rhio. The quantity exported from Singapore in
1871 amounted to 3,366 cwt., of which only 447 cwt. were shipped
to the United Kingdom, the remainder being sent chiefly to British
India.[2179] The export from Penang is from 2,000 to 3,000 peculs
annually. There is also a considerable export of long pepper from
Calcutta.
=Uses=—Long pepper is scarcely used as a medicine, black pepper having
been substituted in the few preparations in which it was formerly
ordered, but it is employed as a spice and in veterinary medicine.
The aromatic root of _Piper longum_, called in Sanskrit
_Pippali-mula_[2180] (whence the modern name _pipli-múl_), is a
favourite remedy of the Hindus and also known to the Persians and Arabs.