Cubeb pepper Absolute

Latin name :

Piper cubeba

Botanical profile :

Cubeb pepper is the berrie of a scrub belonging to the Piperaceae family and to the piper genus.

Geographic origin :

Cubeb pepper tree is indigenous to Indonesia. It is also possible to find it in Malaysia or India, where it is mainly cultivated for its leaves and dried fruits.

Chemotypes :

There are many species of pepper (Piper), cultivable for perfume or not:
Piper nigrum (Black Pepper EO) - Classic pepper, worldwidely famous for its spice
Piper betel (Betel leaf EO) - From south east Asia, known for the medicial properties of its leaves.
Piper cubeba (Cubeb pepper Absolute - Cubeb pepper CO2 - Cubeb pepper EO) Cubeb pepper, or ''tailled pepper ''
Piper umbellatum - Cow foot leaf , native to the Amazon.
Piper guineense - Guinea pepper, rich in myristicin.
Piper bourbonense - Bourbon pepper, from Madagascar.
Piper longum - Long pepper, used in Ayurvedic (Indian) medicine.
Piper longifolium - Long-leaved pepper.

There are also fake peppers:
Cubeba officinalis - whose leaves are distilled.
Pimenta dioica - Jamaican pepper or All Spice EO.
Zanthoxylum armatum - Sichuan Pepper Absolute.
Capsicum frutescens - Cayenne pepper.

Extraction process :

Cubeb pepper tree is a climbing plant that can reach 5 to 15m. It grows mainly in Southeast Asia. This plant is particularly valued for its leaves and berries. The berries are harvested by hand between May and June. This harvest is difficult because the tree climbs regularly on other trees and can thus reach important heights. Berries are then dried and crushed before being used.

At this stage a large part of the production is used as spice. However, a small amount is extracted for perfumery according to the different current practices of our industry.
It is therefore possible to make hydrodistillation on the crushed berries, obtain the Cubeb pepper EO. (close to 10% yield)
If berries are extracted with volatile solvent (mainly hexan), we obtain the Cubeb pepper Absolute and finally, it is also possible to make a CO2 extraction on this ingredient. We then obtain Cubeb pepper CO2.
The most common way of extraction is hydrodistillation.

Major Components :

Data not available.