Cubeb

The dried berries of a Southeast Asian plant resembling black pepper, but with a small stalk attached, also known as cubeb pepper; tailed pepper; Java pepper. It is related to pepper.

Overview

CUBEB is a culinary, distillery, medicinal, and perfumery spice, cultivated for its unripe fruit. It is yielded from the plant Piper cubeba L.f., a nan in the Piperaceae family, growing in wet tropical biome, with a native range of Indo-China to Malesia.¹

It is used primarily in gins; cooking; anti-asthma, diuretic. Its aroma is described as pungent, camphor-like, peppery, with a heat index of 3.²

See more in ( Citation: POWO, 2024 POWO (2024). Plants of the world online. Facilitated by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Retrieved from http://www.plantsoftheworldonline.org/ ; Citation: Petruzzello, 2021 Petruzzello, M. (2021). List of herbs and spices. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/topic/list-of-herbs-and-spices-2024392 ; Citation: Wyk, 2014 Wyk, B. (2014). Culinary herbs and spices of the world. University of Chicago Press, joint publication with the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. ; Citation: Dalby, 2000 Dalby, A. (2000). Dangerous tastes: the story of spices. University of California Press. ; Citation: Hill, 2004 Hill, T. (2004). The contemporary encyclopedia of herbs and spices: Seasonings for the global kitchen. J. Wiley. ; Citation: Anderson, 2023 Anderson, I. (2023). The history and natural history of spices: the 5000-year search for flavour. The History Press. )

Illustration of Piper cubeba from Köhler’s Medizinal-Pflanzen (1887) ( Citation: 1887 Köhler, H. (1887). Köhler’s Medizinal-Pflanzen in naturgetreuen Abbildungen mit kurz erläuterndem Texte: Atlas zur Pharmacopoea germanica, austriaca, belgica, danica, helvetica, hungarica, rossica, suecica, Neerlandica, British pharmacopoeia, zum Codex medicamentarius, sowie zur Pharmacopoeia of the United States of America. Franz Eugen Köhler. Retrieved from https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/623 ) II 103.

Distribution

Native and introduced habitats of Piper cubeba³

Native areas:       Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam, Borneo, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Maluku, Sulawesi, Sumatera

Introduced areas:

Bibliography