European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

BIOAVAILABILITY ENHANCEMENT OF ANTICANCEROUS DRUG FROM MOTHER NATURE: PIPERINE

Priyanka Nagwanshi, Harish Sharma and Gyanesh Kumar Sahu*

ABSTRACT

Alkaloids include a family of naturally occurring chemical compounds containing mostly basic nitrogen atoms. Piperine is an alkaloid present in black pepper (Piper nigrum), one of the most widely used spices, in long pepper (Piper longum), and other Piper species fruits belonging to the family of Piperaceae, and is the carrier of its specific pungent taste, which is responsible for centuries of human dietary utilization and worldwide popularity as a food ingredient. Along with the application as a food ingredient and food preservative, it is used in traditional medicine for many purposes, which has in most cases been justified by modern scientific studies on its biological effects. It has been confirmed that piperine has many bioactive effects, such as antimicrobial action, as well as many physiological effects that can contribute to general human health, including immunomodulatory, hepatoprotective, antioxidant, antimetastatic, antitumor, and many other activities. Bioenhancers or a bioavailability enhancer is a new chapter in medical science first scientifically established in 1979 after the discovery of world‘s first bioenhancer Piperine. Bioenhancers are defined as substances that increase the bioavailability and bioefficacy of active substances with which they are combined without having any activity of their own at the dose used. Increased bioefficacy means the increased effectiveness of the drug due to increased bioavailability and also due to other mechanism. The approach is novel at the abundantly available natural product piperine is utilized as precursor for the synthesis of new potential anticancer agents. This review article concludes the bioavailability enhancing property of Piperine.

Keywords: Piperine, cancer, bioavailability.