Piper baccatum
Blume
Climbing pepper of Java
(c) airgel, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by airgel
(c) Donna Schakelaar, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)
What to Eat
Edible parts: Roots, Leaves, Stems
In Europe, cubeb was one of the valuable spices during the Middle Ages. 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. As an aromatic confectionery, cubeb was often candied and eaten whole. Ocet Kubebowy, a vinegar infused with cubeb, cumin and garlic, was used for meat marinades in Poland during the 14th century (Dembinska 1999, p. 199). Cubeb can be used to enhance the flavor of savory soups. Cubeb reached Africa by way of the Arabs. In Moroccan cuisine, cubeb is used in savory dishes and in pastries like makrouts, little diamonds of semolina with honey and dates. It also appears occasionally in the list of ingredients for the famed spice mixture Ras el hanout. In Indonesian cuisine, especially in Indonesian gulés (curries), cubeb is frequently used.
Where to Find It
It is a tropical plant.
Asia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, SE Asia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam,
How to Identify
A vine. It can grow 16 m long. The branches are smooth and 2-4 mm across. The leaves are leathery and a rounded oval shaped. They are 12-16.5 cm long by 4-9.5 cm wide. The spikes are 4.5-9.5 cm long and hang down. The fruit are round.
Medicinal Uses
Physicians in the Islamic Golden Age distilled "water of al butm" (turpentine) from a mixture of herbal products, including cubeb. In Victorian and Edwardian England, cubeb was an antiseptic for gonorrhea treatment. William Wyatt Squire wrote in 1908 that cubeb berries "act specifically on the genitourinary mucous membrane. (They are) given in all stages of gonorrhea" and The National Botanic Pharmacopoeia printed in 1921 stated that cubeb was "an excellent remedy for flour albus or whites". A tincture of the compound appeared in the British Pharmacopoeia, and a gum with 1% cubebin, roughly equivalent to 30-60 grains of cubeb fruit, had become standardized as a drug, also called cubeb.
Names & Synonyms
Sambanganai
References (1)
- World Checklist of Useful Plant Species 2020. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
