Cubeb

May 12th, 2007

Other names:
Java Pepper, Tailed Cubebs, Tailed Pepper
French: cubÃ¨be
German: Kubebe
Italian: cubebe
Spanish: cubebe
Indonesian: tjabÃ© djawa
India:Tailed pepper (Naja golmorich in Bengali)

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 â€” the “tails” in “tailed pepper”. The dried pericarp is wrinkled, its color ranges from grayish-brown to black. The seed is hard, white and oily. The odor of cubebs is described as agreeable and aromatic. The taste, pungent, acrid, slightly bitter and persistent.

The name cubeb comes from Arabic kababah (ÙƒØ¨Ø§Ø¨Ø©) 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.

Native to Indonesia, particularly Java, cubeb came to Europe via India through Venetian trade with the Arabs, Javanese growers protected their monopoly of the trade by sterilizing the berries by scalding, thus ensuring that the vines were unable to be cultivated elsewhere. Its main use appears to have been in medicine, although its similarity to pepper made it a handy substitute.

Plant Description:
A tropical, climbing perennial vine with a round grey stem. The leaves are smooth and ovate with a pointed tip. The small white flowers are arranged in spikes that later develop into an aggregate of berries along the central axis. The fruits are brown.

Spice Description:
This is the small, red-brown irregular seeds of a cardamom-like plant. The seeds are 3-4 mm (1/8â€) in diameter and are numerously contained in a brown wrinkled, fig-shaped dried capsule about 30mm (1-1/4â€) in length; they have a white kernel. They are rarely found in the West.
Bouquet: Pungent, slightly camphorous, with a touch of nutmed
Flavour: Peppery, aromatic and slightly bitter.

Chemical Compositions:
The dried cubeb berries contain essential oil consisting monoterpenes (sabinene 50%, Î±-thujene, carene, 1,4-cineol and 1,8-cineol) and sesquiterpenes (caryophyllene, copaene, Î±- and Î²-cubebene, Î´-cadinene, cubebol, germacrene).

About 15% of a volatile oil is obtained by distilling cubebs with water. Cubebene, the liquid portion, has the formula C15H24. It is a pale green or blue-yellow viscous liquid with a warm woody, slightly camphoraceous odor.[8] After rectification with water, or on keeping, this deposits rhombic crystals of camphor of cubebs (C15H60).

Cubebin (C10H10O3) is a crystalline substance existing in cubebs, discovered by EugÃ¨ne 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.
Culinary Uses:
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 confectionery, cubeb was often candied and eaten whole. Candied cubeb is mentioned in Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow, set in 1940s:

Cubeb is used in local Indonesian cookery, especially in Indonesian gulÃ©s (curries). It was once popular in Arab cooking. Although there are no specific uses for cubeb in modern Western cookery, it was popular in the Middle Ages and in moderation may still be used to effect both as a spice and a pepper substitute. Because of its aromatic qualities, cubeb would go well with meat, cheese and vegetable dishes. It may be substituted for pepper in spice mixtures such as quatre-Ã©pices for flavouring patÃ©s, sausages, gingerbreads and spiced biscuits. Another use for cubeb is in place of allspice, where it will give a more peppery flavour.

Medicinal Properties and Uses:
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:

Cubeb berry is considered a carminative, diuretic, expectorant, stimulant, and antiseptic. It has often been used in the treatment of gonorrhea. Cubeb Berry has been shown to be effective in easing the symptoms of chronic bronchitis. It is also used for digestive ailments and is effective in treating dysentery. Cubeb also has a local stimulating effect on the mucous membranes of the urinary and respiratory tracts. The herb has often been associated with the reproductive system and has been used to treat cystitis, leucorrhea, urethritis, and prostate infections. Its action in regards to genital problems have led many to believe that cubeb has aphrodisiacal properties and is often used in traditional love spells.

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”.[14] 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 â€” 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.

Cigarettes and spirits:
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 II. 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.

Help taken from:en.wikipedia.org and www.theepicentre.com