Cubeb Oil

#### Cubeb Oil. **Cubeb**** ****Oil**** **is steam distilled from the unripe, dried, crushed fruits of **Piper**** ****Cubeba**, a climbing vine similar to the pepper plant. The plant is a native of the greater Sunda Islands (Indonesia) where it is commonly grown on coffee and cocoa plantations. Cubeb is also cultivated in Ceylon, on the Malayan peninsula and on a number of Far Eastern islands. The fruits are harvested before they are ripe; this explains the wrinkled surface of the dried fruits. A short piece of stem is usually left on the fruit which also bears the name of "**Tailed Pepper**". Distillation takes place almost exclusively in Europe and the U.S.A. Considerable quantities of cubebs are locally consumed as a spice, and a great number of other species of this family are also cultivated in the same areas, mainly for local use as spice. This fact, however, has lead to very frequent contamination, not to speak of adulteration, of the berries as such. It takes quite a bit of experience to distinguish between true cubebs and the many false varieties, etc. The so-called "Singapore-seed" is generally preferred for distillation. Importers of cubeb will be very disappointed after an initial trial distillation if their cubeb lot was false or a poor mixture. Not only is the essential oil from these cubeb-resembling varieties of very little value, but the yield of oil from most of these false cubebs is usually much lower than the yield from the genuine berries. **Cubeb Oil **is a pale greenish-yellow to bluish- yellow, occasionally almost colorless, somewhat viscous oil. The presence of blue or greenish-blue color usually indicates that the distillation has been carried through to the very highest boiling constituents of the oil (azulenes and related hydrocarbons). During the distillation, one can observe a distinct ammoniacal odor in the condensate. This is also observed during the distillation of black pepper, allspice, ginger, and numerous other oils. Although this phenomenon has not been officially explained, it seems conceivable that proteins (which are amines) in the plant material may be hydrolytically decomposed during the distillation, probably due to the presence of certain activators in these particular botanicals. The annual world production of true cubeb oil is difficult to estimate, but probably does not exceed 10 metric tons. The odor of **Cubeb Oil **is very dry-woody, but simultaneously warm-camphoraceous, spicy-peppery. The odor should be free from the very light pepper-like characteristic found in black pepper and elemi oils, and it should rather present the heavy-woody peppery notes found in guaiacwood. atractylis, araucaria, schinus molle, etc. The closest approach to the cubeb oil odor in a single perfume material is probably found in the oil of **Cedrela**** ****Odorata**. The flavor of cubeb oil is warm, but bitter, hardly pungent at all. Accordingly, cubeb oil is only rarely used in flavors, occasionally in spice blends. **Cubeb Oleoresin **(see following monograph) is preferred in flavor work. **Cubeb**** ****Oil,**** **consisting mainly of sesquiterpenes, sesquiterpene alcohols and minor quantities of monoterpenes, etc., is useful in soap perfumes where it may lend "peppery" undertones and warm-woody character. Black pepper oil would be almost wasted if thus used. Cubeb oil is also very useful in the creation of woody-peppery perfume bases, carnation perfumes, and in the "construction" of artificial essential oils. The oil blends well with cananga oil, cinnamic alcohol, clove stem oil, coumarin, eugenol, galbanum, isoeugenol, lavandin oil, rosemary oil, etc. **Cubeb Oil **itself is frequently subject to adulteration, e.g. additions of clove leaf oil sesquiterpenes, cedrela oil, copaiba oil, schinus molle oil, etc., and fractions of other essential oils. False cubebs, e.g. **Piper Crassipes **(see monograph) are, however, the most frequent cause of a poor grade of **Cubeb Oil.**