Cubeb Piper cubeba

In Indian Sanskrit texts cubeb is included in various remedies. Charaka and Sushruta prescribed a paste of cubebs as a mouthwash, or dried cubebs internally for oral and dental diseases, loss of voice, halitosis, fevers, cough. Unani physicians use a paste of the cubeb berries externally on male and female genitals to intensify sexual pleasure during coitus. Due to this attributed property cubebs were called "Habb-ul-Uruus". This use may have been the basis of cubeb as a legendary aphrodisiac. Outside of culinary use as a "red alternative" to black pepper, cubeb is little used in the West.

In traditional Chinese medicine cubeb is used for it's warming property. In Tibetan medicine, cubeb (ka ko la in Tibetan) is one of bzang po drug, six herbs beneficial to specific organs in the body. Cubeb is assigned for the spleen.