ABSTRACT
Many spices used in food seasoning have broad spectrum of antimicrobial activity. Their antioxidant activity against lipid peroxidation enhances the keeping quality of food. Apart from the use as a popular spice and flavouring substance, black pepper as drug in the Indian and Chinese systems of medicine is well documented (Nadkarni 1976, Kurup et al. 1979, Atal et al. 1975). In the Ayurvedic descriptions, pepper is described as katu (pungent), tikta (bitter), usbnaveerya (potency, leading to storing up of energy, easy digestion, diaphoresis, thirst and fatigue), to subdue vatta (all the biological phenomena controlled by CNS and autonomic nervous system) and kapha (implies the function of heat regulation, and also formation of various preservative fluids like mucus, synovia etc. The main functions of kapha is to provide co-ordination of the body system and regularization of all biological activities). Pepper is described as a drug which increases digestive power, improves appetite, cures cold, cough, dyspnoea, diseases of the throat, intermittent fever, colic, dysentery, worms and piles; also useful in tooth ache, pain in liver and muscle, inflammation, leucoderma and epileptic fits (Ayier and Kolammal 1966, Kirtikar and Basu 1975). Black pepper is called maricha or marica in Sanskrit, indicating its property to dispel poison. In Chinese medicine, it is used externally for snake and scorpion bite. These descriptions explain the diverse actions of pepper, which is being used in the Indian system of medicine either as such or as an ingredient in many formulations. But in the allopathic system, pepper or its active constituents did not find any therapeutic or clinical use. The above mentioned activities may be attributed to piperine and other phenolic amides and essential oil constituents (see chap. III). But in Ayurveda, the active principle-based specific activities of substances are not taken into consideration. Hence the pharmacological and toxicological aspects of pepper and its constituent secondary metabolites were not studied. Many of the clinical uses mentioned above were time tested and have been in use for generations. But to establish a scientific basis for many activities for which it has been used, pepper and its active constituents should be studied pharmacologically with well defined experimental protocols as used in modern drug development. Several studies were reported during the last
ten or fifteen years, many of the results were encouraging and supported some of the clinical uses in the traditional Indian systems. Analgesic, antipyretic, antinflammatory, antimicrobial, and antineoplastic activities were reported both under in vitro and in vivo studies in experimental systems. Very promising results could be obtained in insecticidal and insect repellent activities. There seems to be scope for developing pepper based insecticides and insect repellents which are nontoxic to human beings.
