Long Pepper Oil

#### Piper Longum. Of little or no interest as a perfume material, but still occurring frequently as a flavoring agent, is the so-called **"Long Pepper"**. It is the fruit of a climbing shrub, a vine closely related to the black pepper plant, and growing wild and cultivated in Indonesia, Ceylon, India and the Philippines. The dried fruit, a conelike cluster of tiny berries, is used as a spice locally and abroad. It is still a common household spice in Europe where it forms part of the "mixed spices" for the home preparation of pickles, etc. The essential oil of **Piper Longum **is prepared by steam distillation of the crushed fruits. The yield is rather small, and the oil is substantially different from that of true black pepper. The main and characteristic difference being the complete absence of "light" or fresh-peppery topnotes in the oil of long pepper. The odor of the latter is somewhat reminiscent of the odor of various "false" cubeb oils: warm and faintly aromatic, somewhat woody and cineole-lemon-like. The fruits of long pepper and the extracts of same have a spicy-pungent flavor. The pungent principle does not seem to be present in the essential oil. Accordingly, it is not conceivable that the oil of **Long Pepper **will have any importance in the flavor industry. Most likely, extracts, e. g. an oleoresin-type, would be of some interest in the compounding of spicy flavor blends for table sauces, seasonings, canned food products, pickles, etc. To the author's knowledge, the oil of **Long**** ****Pepper**** **is not produced regularly on a commercial scale. The spice is, however, still a common article in Europe and Asia. It is conceivable that the fresh-aromatic top- notes do exist in the freshly harvested, dried fruits, but there are no distillation facilities in the growing areas. The very large surface of the clusters of long pepper fruits will expose the delicate components of the essential oil to detrimental influence of air during long transportation to users in Europe and elsewhere.