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Piper cubeba
Also called Java Pepper, Cubeb Pepper
Cubeb (Piper cubeba) is a tropical climbing shrub of the pepper family, grown mainly in Java and Sumatra for its dried berries and essential oil. It is a tropical plant that needs warmth, humidity and steady moisture to grow well.
Piper cubeba, cubeb or tailed pepper is a plant in the 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 cubeb consists of the dried berries, similar in appearance to black pepper, but with stalks attached – the "tails" in "tailed pepper". The dried pericarp is wrinkled, and its color ranges from grayish brown to black. The seed is hard, white and oily. The odor of cubeb berries is described as agreeable and aromatic and the taste as pungent, acrid, slightly bitter and persistent. It has been described as tasting like allspice, or like a cross between allspice and black pepper.
Cubeb came to Europe via India through the trade with the Arabs. The name cubeb comes from Arabic kabāba (كبابة) by way of Old French quibibes.
The dried cubeb berries contain an essential oil comprising monoterpenes (sabinene 50%, α-thujene, and carene) and sesquiterpenes (caryophyllene, copaene, α- and β-cubebene, δ-cadinene, germacrene), the oxides 1,4- and 1,8-cineole and the alcohol cubebol.
About 15% of a volatile oil is obtained by steam distilling cubeb berries. Cubebene, the liquid portion, has the formula C15H24 and comes in two forms, α- and β-. They differ only in the position of the alkene moiety, with the double-bond being endocyclic (part of the five-membered ring) in α-cubebene, as shown, but exocyclic in β-cubebene. It is a pale green viscous liquid with a warm woody, slightly camphoraceous odor. After rectification with water, or on keeping, this deposits rhombic crystals of camphor of cubeb.
Higuillo de hoja menuda · Vera cruz pepper · Betel · Madagascan Wild Pepper · Javanese Long Pepper · Piper darienense · Pepper · Kadsura Pepper · Long pepper · Kava · Black pepper · Javanese long pepper
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Piper cubeba by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
