Javanese long pepper is the long pepper of Thailand and Indonesia: a climbing vine of the pepper family whose tiny fruits grow packed tightly together in a short, dense spike. Dried whole, the reddish-brown spikes are the dee plee of Thai kitchens and the cabe jawa of Indonesia — hot and persistent, with sweet-spicy, woody and citrus notes. It is a different species from the better-known Indian long pepper, Piper longum, the pippali of Indian tradition, although the two are often sold under the same name. In this guide, “long pepper” always means Piper retrofractum.
Scientific name
Piper retrofractum Vahl
Family
Piperaceae (pepper family)
Other names
Thai ดีปลี (dee plee) and ดีปลีเชือก (dee plee chueak); cabe jawa (Indonesian); tabia bun (Balinese); cabai jawa (Malay); Java long pepper
Origin
Southeast Asia; its exact native range is debated. Long cultivated in Java, Madura and Thailand
Flavour profile
Hot and persistent · sweet spice · woody depth · a citrus lift
Part used
Fruiting spike — dried whole, crushed or ground just before use
Not to be confused with
Indian long pepper, Piper longum (pippali)
Meet the spice
What is long pepper?
Long pepper is a woody climbing vine of the pepper family, Piperaceae. It can climb to 10 m, holding on to trees, walls and posts with short roots that grow from its stems. Its leaves are leathery, 8–20 cm long.
Plants are either male or female. On female plants, many tiny fruits grow packed tightly together in a dense spike. Fresh spikes are green and sharp; as they ripen they turn orange to red and become softer and sweeter. Dried, they are hard and reddish brown — in the Thai pharmacopoeia, 2.5–7.5 cm long.
Kept at about 5 m high, the vine flowers and fruits all year round. Growers train it up posts or trees and pick the spikes every few weeks, when they are mature and just turning orange-red. Fresh spikes rot easily, so they are dried quickly: in Thailand usually in dryers, in Indonesia often after a short boil, then for three or four days in the sun.
Ripening and green spikes on the vine
Javanese
Indian
Latin name
Piper retrofractum
Piper longum
Plant
Woody climber, up to 10 m
Lower, spreading plant
Grown mainly in
Thailand, Indonesia
India
In Ayurveda
Chavya (the stem)
Pippali (the fruit)
The story
A short history of long pepper
Long pepper is one of the oldest spices of world trade. But for most of that history, the long pepper Europe knew came from India. The Javanese species has a quieter story of its own.
4th century BCE
Two peppers
The Greek botanist Theophrastus already told black and long pepper apart, and found long pepper much stronger.
1st century CE
Dearer than black
In Pliny’s Rome, long pepper cost 15 denarii a pound and black pepper 4. This Roman long pepper came from India — Piper longum.
About 1390
In a royal spiced wine
The Forme of Cury, the cookbook of Richard II’s kitchen, puts long pepper in hippocras, a sweet spiced wine.
1854
From Java and Siam
Java long pepper reached Europe through the Dutch colonies. In the same year, a French bishop’s account of Siam listed dee plee among the kingdom’s trade goods.
1920s
A forgotten spice
Java still exported 200–250 tonnes a year, yet outside Asia long pepper had become “practically a forgotten spice”.
Place and food culture
In northern Thailand, dee plee belongs to phrik laap, the toasted spice blend of Lanna laap, and every laap maker has their own recipe. In Chiang Mai and Lamphun the blend holds a long list of spices — both cities traded for generations with caravans from China and India. Cooks of Phrae and Nan keep it simpler, with dried chilli and makhwaen to the fore. A classic blend from a Lanna food book is on page 6.
In Bali, tabia bun goes into base wangen, a dry spice mix, and into gulai, curries and soto; it is also part of temple offerings. In Malaysia the spikes go into marinades, pickles and curries.
The science of flavour
Where the heat comes from
Long pepper’s bite comes from piperine — the same pungent compound as in black pepper — and a family of related amides. In laboratory tests, an extract of long pepper fruit switched on the body’s heat sensor, and piperine did most of the work.
Two receptors
Piperine switches on TRPV1, the heat sensor that chilli also uses, and TRPA1, the receptor behind the bite of mustard and wasabi.
Sharp and persistent
Cooks describe its heat as biting and lingering — a tasting note, not a measurement.
Light changes it
Light slowly turns piperine into related compounds. Keep long pepper in the dark.
Why long pepper smells warm and woody
Its aroma comes from a small amount of essential oil. In red, ripe spikes from Hainan, three compounds led the oil: β-caryophyllene (28 %), α-humulene (13 %) and germacrene D (12 %). All three are also leading compounds in black pepper oil.
β-Caryophyllene
The largest part of the oil. Woody and warm-spicy.
α-Humulene
Woody, with a dry, hop-like edge; it takes its name from hops, Humulus.
Germacrene D
Woody and spicy; it rounds out the warm base.
Piperine and amides
Not part of the aroma, but the heat behind it.
Aroma descriptions follow published analyses and aroma references; proportions vary widely between samples, places and methods.
In the kitchen
Cooking with long pepper
Hot
A sharp first bite
Sweet spice
Warm and rounded
Woody
A deep base note
Citrus
A fresh lift
How to use the spikes
Whole. Drop a whole or lightly crushed spike into a broth, curry or braise early in cooking. Take it out before serving, like a bay leaf.
Toasted. Warm the spikes in a dry pan over low heat until fragrant, as northern Thai cooks do for laap spice.
Ground. The spikes are hard: break them, then pound them in a mortar or use a spice grinder, just before use.
Start small. Add a little, taste and add more.
Ways to use it
Northern Thai laap spice
Curries and curry pastes
Broths, soups and slow braises
Marinades for meat and fish
Balinese-style spice mixes, gulai and soto
Fruit, syrups and spiced wine
Good partners. In spice blends: makhwaen, black pepper, coriander and dill seed, cumin, cinnamon, star anise, cloves, nutmeg and mace. In cooking: galangal, lemongrass, garlic, shallots and dried chilli.
Long pepper and its relatives
Spice · species
Part used
In the kitchen
Javanese long pepper / Piper retrofractum
Dried fruit spike
Northern Thai laap spice; Balinese spice mixes, gulai and soto
Indian long pepper / Piper longum
Dried fruit spike
The pippali of Indian tradition; the long pepper of ancient Rome
Black pepper / Piper nigrum
Dried berries
Everyday seasoning worldwide
Makhwaen / Zanthoxylum myriacanthum
Dried fruit husks
Northern Thai laap and curries; long pepper’s partner in laap spice
Recipes
Northern Thai laap, in two steps
First the spice blend, then the dish. The blend comes from the Lanna food book Ocha haeng Lanna (2015), as published by Krua.co.
Phrik laap — Lanna laap spice
Makes about 1 cup — enough for about 2 kg of laap meat
30 large dried chillies
7 long pepper spikes
2 nutmegs, 2 blades of mace
1 cinnamon stick, 2.5 cm
½ tbsp star anise, ½ tbsp cardamom
1 tbsp dried sand ginger (pro hom)
5 cloves
1 tbsp each coriander seed, cumin and dill seed
2 tbsp makhwaen
1 tsp black peppercorns
1 lemongrass stalk, 10 Thai garlic cloves and 2 tsp chopped mature galangal — each sliced and toasted
1 tsp sea salt
Grill the chillies on a skewer over charcoal until crisp and fragrant (a dry pan also works). In a dry pan over low heat, toast the nutmeg, long pepper, cinnamon, star anise, cardamom and sand ginger until fragrant. Add the mace and cloves, then the coriander, makhwaen, cumin, dill seed and black pepper, and toast until everything smells warm. Leave to cool and pound it all fine. Pound in the chillies, then the lemongrass, garlic, galangal and salt. Lanna cooks use it for laap, northern chicken salad (yam jin gai) and other northern dishes.
Laap kua — northern stir-fried laap
After Hot Thai Kitchen (Pailin Chongchitnant), made with the Lanna blend
3–4 tbsp phrik laap (the book’s ratio: 1 cup for 2 kg of meat)
1½ tbsp fish sauce + 1½ tbsp water
450 g minced pork, not too lean
3–4 tbsp oil, 5 garlic cloves, chopped
¼ cup thinly sliced shallots
1 lemongrass stalk, lower half, finely chopped
Coriander, spring onion, Vietnamese coriander and mint
Stir the spice blend, fish sauce and water together and work them into the pork. The blend already holds chilli, so add more only after tasting. Fry the garlic slowly in the oil until golden, lift it out and keep the oil. In the garlic oil, fry the shallots and lemongrass until the lemongrass browns. Add the pork and cook, breaking it up, until done. Off the heat, stir in the herbs; top with the fried garlic and serve with sticky rice and raw vegetables.
Long pepper, toasted and pounded
Beyond the Thai kitchen
— long pepper’s sweet heat in other kitchens, not Thai tradition
Strawberries with lime
Simmer a light syrup with lime and a few long pepper spikes and pour it over strawberries.
Spiced wine
Medieval cooks put long pepper in hippocras. Add a spike to mulled wine or hot apple juice.
Pepper mill blend
Break a spike and grind it with black peppercorns over roast vegetables or steak.
Beyond flavour
Tradition and research
Long pepper is first of all a spice. In Thailand and Indonesia it also has a long place in traditional practice, and its compounds interest researchers today.
What researchers are exploring now
Two studies in people, both with Benjakul — a classic Thai formula of five herbs, long pepper among them:
Eighty-four people with knee osteoarthritis took either Benjakul extract (100 mg three times a day) or the painkiller diclofenac (25 mg three times a day) for 28 days. Overall the two groups did about equally well, but pain scores fell clearly only with diclofenac. There were no serious side effects. A five-herb extract, not the spice, and no placebo group.
Sixty people with allergic rhinitis (hay fever) took either Benjakul extract (300 mg a day) or the antihistamine loratadine (10 mg a day) for six weeks. Quality-of-life scores improved with Benjakul, and after six weeks the two groups did not differ. A small trial with a five-herb extract, not the spice; the published summary does not report side effects.
Keep the context. The only human trials we found used Benjakul, an extract of five Thai herbs — not long pepper on its own, and not the spice. We know of no human studies on long pepper eaten as a spice. Concentrated piperine, as used in some supplements, can change how the body handles certain medicines. That is why we describe long pepper as a spice, not a remedy.
Educational product information. Not medical advice. If you are pregnant, breastfeeding or taking medication, consult your doctor before using a new botanical product.
