Piper Crassipes Oil

#### Piper Crassipes. Among numerous "false cubebs", the fruits of **Piper**** ****Crassipes**** **are probably the best known. And since they occur so frequently in commercial lots of cubeb that they are often distilled with true cubeb, or even distilled *as *true cubeb by unexperienced distillers, a few words should be spent on this adulteration, contamination or confusion. The selection of true cubebs from so-called "false" cubebs demands considerable experience, and the interested reader should consult special pharmacognostical or botanical works on this subject. The amateur distiller will often find his own method of discriminating true from false fruits, and the author knows of distillers who rely exclusively upon the yield of essential oil by steam distillation. If the yield is better than 9%, the distiller will use the fruits for distillation of "true" cubeb oil (see monograph). This method is obviously unreliable since there are cubebs which yield 16 or 18% essential oil. Such material could be mixed with poor material of false fruits, yielding an average of e.g. 11% essential oil. A thorough study of the general appearance of the botanical material is necessary to ensure a true starting material. The fruits (berries) of **Piper Crassipes **are generally smaller than true cubebs, and when crushed between the fingers or in a mortar, they emit a sweet, cineole-type odor, in contrast to the spicy- warm, aromatic-woody odor of true cubebs. The color of Piper Crassipes fruits is grayish, while true cubebs are brown or reddish-brown in color (when comparatively fresh). Oil of **Piper Crassipes **is a greenish-yellow, somewhat viscous liquid of faint, but fresh-medicinal odor, slightly reminiscent of niaouli oil and with a dryout of a clove-terpene type odor or cedrela odorata type odor. Oil of **Piper Crassipes **has no application in perfumery and is not produced regularly on a commercial scale. To the author's knowledge, the oil is without interest to the flavor industry, apart from the above.