Piper baccatum

Blume

Climbing pepper of Java

Piperaceae Edible: Roots, Leaves, Stems 25 iNaturalist observations

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Description

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.

Edible Uses

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.

Traditional Uses

It is used as a tonic.

This uses section is brief — help expand it

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.

Distribution

It is a tropical plant.

Where It Grows

Asia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, SE Asia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam,

Synonyms

Muldera baccata (Blume) Miq.Muldera firma Miq.Muldera recurva Zoll.Muldera recurva (Blume) Miq.Piper ceylanicum C. DC.Piper firmum (Miq.) C. DC.Piper flavimarginatum C. DC.Piper pachyphyllum Hook.f.Piper protrusum Chaveer. & TaneePiper recurvum BlumePiper sarcopodum C. DC.