noun
definition
The tailed pepper, Piper cubeba; an Indonesian plant cultivated for its berries and essential oil.
Examples of cubebs in a Sentence
Commercial cubebs consist of the dried berries, usually with their stalks attached; the pericarp is greyish-brown, or blackish and wrinkled; and the seed, when present, is hard, white and oily.
The odour of cubebs is agreeable and aromatic; the taste, pungent, acrid, slightly bitter and persistent.
About 15% of a volatile oil is obtained by distilling cubebs with water; after rectification with water, or on keeping, this deposits rhombic crystals of camphor of cubebs, C 15 H 26 O; cubebene, the liquid portion, has the formula C15HV4.
Cubebs is frequently used in the form of cigarettes for asthma, chronic pharyngitis and hay-fever.
A small percentage of cubebs is also commonly included in lozenges designed for use in bronchitis, in which the antiseptic and expectoral properties of the drug are useful.
As compared with copaiba in this connexion cubebs has the advantages of being less disagreeable to take and somewhat less likely to disturb the digestive apparatus in prolonged administration.
Cubebs were formerly candied and eaten whole, or used ground as a seasoning for meat.
In this group may be included the oleo-resins, such as copaiba, cubebs and Canada balsam; the gum-resins, such as asafetida, myrrh, ammoniacum and galbanum; and the true balsams, such as benzoin, storax, balsam of Tolu and balsam of Peru.