_Fructus vel Baccæ vel Piper Cubebæ_[2181]; _Cubebs_; F. _Cubèbes_; G.
_Cubeben_.
=Botanical Origin=—_Piper Cubeba_ Linn. f. (_Cubeba officinalis_ Miq.),
a climbing, woody, diœcious shrub, indigenous to Java, Southern Borneo
and Sumatra.[2182]
=History=—Cubebs have been introduced into medicine by the Arabian
physicians of the middle ages, who describe them as having the form,
colour, and properties of pepper. Masudi[2183] in the 10th century
stated them to be a production of Java. Edrisi,[2184] the geographer,
in A.D. 1153 enumerated them among the imports of Aden.
Among European writers, Constantinus Africanus of Salerno was
acquainted with this drug as early as the 11th century; and in the
beginning of the 13th its virtues were noticed in the writings of the
Abbess Hildegard in Germany, and even in those of Henrik Harpestreng in
Denmark.[2185]
Cubebs are mentioned as a production of Java (“_grant isle de Javva_”)
by Marco Polo; and by Odoric, an Italian friar, who visited the island
about forty years later. In the 13th century the drug was an article
of European trade, and would appear to have already been regularly
imported into London.[2186] Duty was levied upon them as _Cubebas
silvestres_ at Barcelona in 1271.[2187] They are mentioned about this
period as sold in the fairs of Champagne in France, the price being 4
_sous_ per lb.[2188] They were also sold in England: in accounts under
date 1284 they are enumerated with almonds, saffron, raisins, white
pepper, grains [of paradise], mace, galangal, and gingerbread, and
entered as costing 2_s._ per lb. In 1285—2_s._ 6_d._ to 3_s._ per lb.;
while in 1307, 1 lb. purchased for the King’s Wardrobe cost 9_s._[2189]
[2179] _Blue Book of the Straits Settlements for 1871._
[2180] Already in the Rāmāyana.
[2181] _Cubeba_ from the Arabic _Kabábah_.
[2182] Fig. in Bentley and Trimen’s _Med. Plants_, part 27 (1877).
[2183] _Les Prairies d’or_, i. 341.
[2184] _Géographie_, trad. par Jaubert, i. 51. 89.
[2185] Meyer, _Geschichte der Botanik_, iii. 537.
[2186] _Munimenta Gildhallæ Londoniensis; Liber albus_, i. (1859, State
papers) 230.
[2187] Capmany, _Memorias sobre la Marina, etc., de Barcelona_, i.
(Madrid, 1779) 44.
[2188] Bourquelot, _Etudes sur les foires de la Champagne, Mémoires
etc. de l’Institut_, v. (1865) 288.
[2189] Rogers, _Hist. of Agriculture and Prices in England_, i. 627-8,
ii. 544.—To get some idea of the relative value of commodities then and
now, multiply the ancient prices by 8.
From the journal of expenses of John, king of France, while in England
during 1359-60, it is evident that cubebs were in frequent use as a
spice. Among those who could command such luxuries, they were eaten
in powder with meat, or they were candied whole. A patent of pontage
granted in 1305 by Edward I., to aid in repairing and sustaining the
Bridge of London, and authorizing toll on various articles, mentions
among groceries and spices, cubebs as liable to impost.[2190] Cubebs
occur in the German lists of medicines of Frankfort and Nördlingen,
about 1450 and 1480;[2191] they are also mentioned in the _Confectbuch_
of Hans Folcz of Nuremberg, dating about 1480.[2192]
It cannot however be said that cubebs were a common spice, at all
comparable with pepper or ginger, or even in such frequent use as
grains of paradise or galangal. Garcia de Orta (1563) speaks of them as
but seldom used in Europe; yet they are named by Saladinus as necessary
to be kept in every _apotheca_.[2193] In a list of drugs to be sold
in the apothecaries’ shops of the city of Ulm, A.D. 1596, cubebs are
mentioned as _Fructus carpesiorum vel cubebarum_, the price for half
an ounce being quoted as 8 _kreuzers_, the same as that of opium,
best manna, and amber, while black and white pepper are priced at 2
_kreuzers_.[2194]
Although it was always well known that the cubebs were a product of
Java and that island is stated to have exported in 1775 as much as
10,000 lb. of this spice,[2195] its mother plant was made known only in
1781 by the younger Linnæus.
The action of cubebs on the urino-genital organs was known to the
old Arabian physicians. Yet modern writers on materia medica even at
the commencement of the present century, mentioned the drug simply
as an aromatic stimulant resembling pepper, but inferior to that
spice and rarely employed,[2196]—in fact it had so far fallen into
disuse that it was omitted from the London Pharmacopœia of 1809.
According to Crawfurd, its importation into Europe, which had long been
discontinued, recommenced in 1815, in consequence of its medicinal
virtues having been brought to the knowledge of the English medical
officers serving in Java, by their Hindu servants.[2197]
[2190] _Liber niger Scaccarii_, Lond. 1771, i. 478.—A translation may
be found in the _Chronicles of London Bridge_, 1827, 155.
[2191] _Archiv der Pharmacie_, 201 (1872) 441 and 211 (1877) 101.
[2192] Choulant, _Macer Floridus_, etc., Lips. 1832, 188.
[2193] _Compendium aromatariorum_, Bonon., 1488.
[2194] Richard, _Beiträge zur Geschichte der Apotheken_, 1825. 124.
[2195] Miquel, _Commentarii phytographici_, i. (Lugd. Bat., 1839).
[2196] In Duncan’s _Edinburgh New Dispensatory_, ed. 2. 1804, _Piper
Cubeba_ is very briefly described, but with no allusion to its
possessing any special medicinal properties. In the 6th edition of the
same work (1811) it was altogether omitted. See also Murray’s _System
of Mat. Med. and Pharm._ i. (1810) 266.
[2197] _Dictionary of the Indian Islands_, 1856. 117.—Mr. Crawfurd
himself communicated to the _Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal_ of
1818 (xiv. 32) a paper making known the “wonderful success” with which
cubebs had been used in gonorrhœa.
=Cultivation and Production=[2198]—Cubebs are cultivated in small
special plantations and also in coffee plantations, in the district
of Banjoemas in the south of Java. The fruits are bought by Chinese
who carry them to Batavia. They are likewise produced in Eastern Java
and about Bantam and Soebang in the north-west; and extensively in the
Lampong country in Sumatra. There has of late been a large distribution
of plants among the European coffee planters.
[2198] We are indebted for some particulars under this head to our
friends Mr. Binnendyk, of the Buitenzorg Botanical Garden near Batavia,
and Dr. De Vry.
The cultivation of cubebs is easy. In the coffee estates certain trees
are required for shade: against these _Piper Cubeba_ is planted, and
climbing to a height of 18 to 20 feet, forms a large bush.
=Description=—The cubebs of commerce consist of the dry globose fruits,
gathered when full-grown, but before they have arrived at maturity.
The fruit is about ⅕ of an inch in diameter, when very young sessile,
but subsequently elevated on a straight thin stalk, a little longer or
even twice as long as itself. By this stalk the fruit is attached in
considerable numbers (sometimes more than 50) to a common thickened
stalk or rachis, about 1½ inch long.
Commercial cubebs are spherical, sometimes depressed at the base,
very slightly pointed at the apex, strongly wrinkled by the shrinking
of the fleshy pericarp; they are of a greyish-brown or blackish hue,
frequently covered with an ashy-grey bloom. The stalk is the elongated
base of the fruit, and remains permanently attached. The common axis
or rachis, which is almost devoid of essential oil, is also frequently
mixed with the drug.
The skin of the fruit covers a hard, smooth brown shell containing the
seed, which latter when developed has a compressed spherical form, a
smooth surface, and adheres to the pericarp only at the base; its apex
either projects slightly or is pressed inwards. The albumen is solid,
whitish, oily, and encloses a small embryo below the apex. In the
cubebs of the shops, the seed is mostly undeveloped and shrunken, and
the pericarp nearly empty.
Cubebs have a strong, aromatic, persistent taste, with some bitterness
and acridity. Their smell is highly aromatic and by no means
disagreeable.
=Microscopic Structure=—This exhibits some peculiarities. The skin
of the fruit below the epidermis, is made up of small, cubic,
thick-walled cells, forming an interrupted row, and only half as large
as in black pepper. The broad middle layer consists of small cubic
thick-walled cells, forming an interrupted row, and only half as large
as in black pepper. The broad middle layer consists of small-celled
undeveloped tissue containing drops of oil, granules of starch, and
crystalline groups of cubebin, probably also fat. This middle layer
is interrupted by very large oil-cells, which frequently enclose
needle-shaped crystals of cubebin, united in concentric groups. The
much narrower inner layer consists of about four rows of somewhat
larger tangentially-extended soft cells, holding essential oil. Next to
these comes the light yellow brittle shell, formed of a densely packed
row of encrusted, radially-arranged, elongated thick-walled cells.
Lastly, the embryo is covered with a thin brown membrane, and exhibits
the structure and contents as that of _Piper nigrum_, excepting that in
_P. Cubeba_ the cells are rounder, and the crystals consist of cubebin
and not of piperin.
=Chemical Composition=—The most obvious constituent of cubebs is the
volatile oil, the proportion of which yielded by the drug varies from 4
to 13 per cent. The causes of this great variation may be found in the
constitution of the drug itself, as well as in the alterability of the
oil, and the fact that its prevailing constituents begin not to boil
below 264° C. It is, as shown in 1875 by Oglialoro, a mixture of an oil
C₁₀H₁₆, boiling at 158°-163°, which is present to a very small amount,
and two oils of the formula C₁₃H₂₄, boiling at 262°-265° C. One of the
latter deviates the plane of polarization strongly to the left, and
yields the crystallized compound C₁₅H₂₄ 2 HCl, melting at 118° C. The
other hydrocarbon is less lævogyrate and cannot be combined with HCl.
One part of oil of cubebs, diluted with about 20 parts of bisulphide of
carbon, assumes at first a greenish, and afterwards a blue coloration,
if one drop of a mixture of concentrated sulphuric and nitric acids
(equal weight of each acid) is shaken with the solution.
The oil distilled from old cubebs on cooling at length deposits large,
transparent, inodorous octohedra of _camphor of cubebs_, C₃₀H₄₈ + 2
OH₂, belonging to the rhombic system. They melt at 65° and may be
sublimed at 148°. We have not succeeded in obtaining them by keeping
the oil of fresh cubebs for two years in contact with water, to which a
little alcohol and nitric acid was added.
Another constituent of cubebs is _Cubebin_, crystals of which may
sometimes be seen in the pericarp even with a common lens. It was
discovered by Soubeiran and Capitaine in 1839; it is an inodorous
substance, crystallizing in small needles or scales, melting at 125°,
having a bitter taste in alcoholic solution; it dissolves freely in
boiling alcohol, but is mostly deposited upon cooling; it requires 30
parts of cold ether for solution, and is also abundantly soluble in
chloroform. We found this solution to be slightly lævogyre; it turns
red on addition of concentrated sulphuric acid. If the solution of
cubebin in chloroform is shaken with dry pentoxide of phosphorus, it
turns _blue_ and gradually becomes red by the influence of moisture.
Cubebin is nearly insoluble in cold, but slightly soluble in hot water.
Bernatzik (1866) obtained from cubebs 0·40 per cent. of cubebin,
Schmidt (1870) 2·5 per cent. The crystals, which are deposited in an
alcoholic or ethereal extract of cubebs, consist of cubebin in an
impure state. Cubebin is devoid of any remarkable therapeutic action.
Its composition, according to Weidel (1877) answers to the formula
C₁₀H₁₀O₃; by melting it with caustic potash, cubebin is resolved as
follows:—
C₁₀H₁₀O₃ · 5 O = CO₂ · C₂H₄O₂ · C₆H₃(OH)₂COOH.
Acetic Protocatechuic
Acid. Acid.
The resin extracted from cubebs consists of an indifferent portion,
nearly 3 per cent., and of _Cubebic Acid_, amounting to about 1 per
cent. of the drug. Both are amorphous, and so, according to Schmidt,
are the salts of cubebic acid. Bernatzik however, found some of them,
as that of barium, to be crystallizable. Schulze (1873) prepared
cubebic acid from the crystallized sodium-salt, but was unable to get
it other than amorphous. The resins, the indifferent as well as the
acid, possess the therapeutic properties of the drug.
Schmidt further pointed out the presence in cubebs, of gum (8 per
cent.), fatty oil, and malates of magnesium and calcium.
=Commerce=—Cubebs were imported into Singapore in 1872 to the extent of
3062 cwt., of which amount 2348 cwt. were entered as from Netherlands
India. The drug was re-shipped during the same year to the amount of
2766 cwt., the quantity exported to the United Kingdom being 1180 cwt.,
to the United States of America 1244 cwt., and to British India 104
cwt.[2199] In the previous year, a larger quantity was shipped to India
than to Great Britain.
=Uses=—Cubebs are much employed in the treatment of gonorrhœa. The
drug is usually administered in powder; less frequently in the form of
ethereal or alcoholic extract, or essential oil.
Bernatzik and Schmidt, whose chemical and therapeutical experiments
have thrown much light on the subject, have shown that the efficacy
of cubebs being dependent on the indifferent resin and cubebic acid,
preparations which contain the utmost amount of these bodies and
exclude other constituents of the drug, are to be preferred. They would
reject the essential oil, as they find its administration devoid of
therapeutic effects.
The preparations which consequently are to be recommended, are the
berries deprived of their essential oil and constituents soluble in
water, and then dried and powdered; an alcoholic extract prepared from
the same, or the purified resins.
=Adulteration=—Cubebs are not much subject to adulteration, though it
is by no means rare that the imported drug contains an undue proportion
of the inert stalks (rachis)[2200] that require to be picked out before
the berries are ground. Dealers judge of cubebs by the oiliness and
strong characteristic smell of the berries when crushed. Those which
have a large proportion of the pale, smooth, ripe berries, which look
_dry_ when broken, are to be avoided.
We have occasionally found in the commercial drug a small, smooth
two-celled fruit, of the size, shape, and colour of cubebs, but wanting
the long pedicel. A slight examination suffices to recognize it as not
being cubebs. We have also met with some cubebs of larger size than the
ordinary sort, much shrivelled, with a stouter and flattened pedicel,
one and a half times to twice as long as the berry. The drug has an
agreeable odour different from that of common cubebs, and a very bitter
taste. From a comparison with herbarium specimens, we judge that it may
possibly be derived from _Piper crassipes_ Korthals (_Cubeba crassipes_
Miq.), a Sumatran species.
The fruits of _Piper Lowong_ Bl. (_Cubeba Lowong_ Miq.), a native of
Java, and those of _P. ribesioides_ Wall. (_Cubeba Wallichii_ Miq.) are
extremely cubeb-like.[2201] Those of _Piper caninum_ A. Dietr. (_Cubeba
canina_ Miq.), a plant of wide distribution throughout the Malay
Archipelago as far as Borneo, for a specimen of which we have to thank
Mr. Binnendyk of Buitenzorg, are smaller than true cubebs, and have
stalks only half the diameter of the berry.
[2199] _Straits Settlements Blue Book for 1872._ 294. 338.—There are
no statistics for showing the _total import_ of cubebs into the United
Kingdom.
[2200] They yielded to Schmidt 1·7 per cent. of oil and 3 per cent. of
resin.
[2201] Figured in Nees von Esenbeck, _Plantæ medicinales_, Düsseldorf,
i. (1828), tab. 22. A different figure is given by Miquel, _Comment.
phytogr._ (1839), tab. 3.
In the south of China the fruits of _Laurus Cubeba_ Lour. have been
frequently mistaken by Europeans for cubebs. The tree which affords
them is unknown to modern botanists; Meissner refers it doubtfully to
the genus _Tetranthera_.[2202]
Ashantee Pepper, African Cubebs, or West African Black Pepper.
This spice is the fruit of _Piper Clusii_ Cas. DC. (_Cubeba Clusii_
Miq.), a species of wide distribution in tropical Africa, most
abundantly occurring in the country of the Niamniam, about 4° to 5°
N. lat., and 28° to 29° E. long. Its splendid red fruit bunches are
spoken of with admiration by Schweinfurth,[2203] who states that
_Piper Clusii_ is one of the characteristic and most conspicuous
plants of those regions. The dried fruit is a round berry having a
general resemblance to common cubebs but somewhat smaller, less rugose,
attenuated into a slender pedicel once or twice as long as the berry
and usually curved. The berries are crowded around a common stalk or
rachis; they are of an ashy-grey tint, and have a hot taste and the
odour of pepper. According to Stenhouse, they contain piperin and not
cubebin.[2204]
The fruit of _Piper Clusii_ was known as early as 1364 to the
merchants of Rouen and Dieppe, who imported it from the Grain Coast,
now Liberia,[2205] under the name of pepper. The Portuguese likewise
exported it from Benin as far back as 1485, as _Pimienta de rabo_, i.e.
_tailed pepper_, and attempted in vain to sell it in Flanders.[2206]
Clusius received from London a specimen of this drug, of which he has
left a good figure in his _Exotica_.[2207] He says that its importation
was forbidden by the King of Portugal for fear it should depreciate the
pepper of India. The spice was also known to Gerarde and Parkinson;
in our times it has been afresh brought to notice by the late Dr.
Daniell.[2208] In tropical Western Africa it is used as a condiment,
and might easily be collected in large quantities, provided it should
prove a good substitute for pepper.[2209]
[2202] De Candolle, _Prod._ xv. sect. i. 199; Hanbury in _Pharm.
Journ._ iii. (1862) 205, with figure; also _Science Papers_, 247.
[2203] _Im Herzen Afrikas_, i. (1874) 507; ii. 399.
[2204] _Pharm. Journ._ xiv. (1855) 363.
[2205] Margry, _Les navigations françaises et la révolution maritime du
XIVᵉ au XVIᵉ siècle_, 1867. 26.
[2206] Giovanni di Barros, _l’Asia_, i. (Venet. 1561) 80.
[2207] Lib. i. c. 22, p. 184 (1605).
[2208] _Pharm. Journ._ xiv. (1855) 198.
[2209] One cask of it was offered for sale in London as “_Cubebs_,” 11
Feb. 1858.