Bi Bo

Fructus Piperis Longi (Bibo) Long Pepper Long Pepper is the dried and nearly ripe or ripe fruit-spike of Piper longum L. (Fam. Piperaceae). The drug is collected when the spike turns from green to black, removed from foreign matter, and dried in the sun. Description Cylindrical, slightly curved, aggregated by numerous small berries, 1.5-3.5 cm long, 3-5 mm in diameter. Externally blackish-brown or brown, with obliquely and regularly arranged protrudings, base bearing a remains of peduncle or sometimes fallen away. Texture hard and easily broken, fracture irregular and granular. Small berries spheroidal, about 1 mm in diameter. Odour, characteristically aromatic; taste, pungent. Identification (1) Powder:Greyish-brown. Stone cells subrounded, long-ovoid or polygonal, 25-61 mm in dismeter, up to 170 mm long, walls relatively thickened, some distinctly striated. Oil cells subrounded, 25-66 mm in diameter. Cells of testa reddish-brown, long-polygonal, walls beaded. Starch granules small, u