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Piper species are aromatic plants used as spices in the kitchen, but their secondary metabolites have also shown biological effects on human health. These plants are rich in essential oils, which can be found in their fruits, seeds, leaves, branches, roots and stems. Some Piper species have simple chemical profiles, while others, such as Piper nigrum, Piper betle, and Piper auritum, contain very diverse suites of secondary metabolites. In traditional medicine, Piper species have been used worldwide to treat several diseases such as urological problems, skin, liver and stomach ailments, for wound healing, and as antipyretic and anti-inflammatory agents. In addition, Piper species could be used as natural antioxidants and antimicrobial agents in food preservation. The phytochemicals and essential oils of Piper species have shown strong antioxidant activity, in comparison with synthetic antioxidants, and demonstrated antibacterial and antifungal activities against human pathogens. Moreover, Piper species possess therapeutic and preventive potential against several chronic disorders. Among the functional properties of Piper plants/extracts/active components the antiproliferative, anti-inflammatory, and neuropharmacological activities of the extracts and extract-derived bioactive constituents are thought to be key effects for the protection against chronic conditions, based on preclinical in vitro and in vivo studies, besides clinical studies. Habitats and cultivation of Piper species are also covered in this review. In this current work, available literature of chemical constituents of the essential oils Piper plants, their use in traditional medicine, their applications as a food preservative, their antiparasitic activities and other important biological activities are reviewed.

Piper is one of two large genera in the Piperaceae, and with ca. 2600 species, is one of the largest plant genera in the world. Species delimitation and evaluation of genetic diversity among populations are important requisites for conservation and adequate exploitation of economically important species. DNA barcoding has been used as a powerful tool and a practical method for species characterization and delimitation. The present work aims to evaluate molecular markers for barcoding three Piper species native to Brazil: P. gaudichaudianum (\"jaborandi\" or \"pariparoba\"), P. malacophyllum (\"pariparoba-murta\") and P. regnellii (\"caapeba\" or \"pariparoba\"). A reference DNA barcode library was developed using sequences of three candidate regions: ITS2, trnH-psbA and rbcL. Transferability of the microsatellite (SSR) primers Psol 3, Psol 6 and Psol 10, designed originally for Piper solmsianum, to the three Piper species was also evaluated. The discriminatory power of the markers was based on the determination of inter- and intraspecific distances, phylogenetic reconstruction, and clustering analysis, as well as BLASTn comparison. Sequences of ITS2 enabled efficient species identification by means of the BLASTn procedure. Based on these sequences, intraspecific divergence was lower than interspecific variation. Maximum Parsimony analyses based on ITS2 sequences provided three resolved clades, each corresponding to one of the three analysed species. Sequences of trnH-psbA and rbcL had lower discriminatory value. Analyses combining sequences of these regions were less effective toward the attainment of resolved and strongly supported clades of all species. In summary, robustly supported clades of P. regnellii were obtained in most of the analyses, based either on isolated or combined sequences. The SSRs primers Psol 3, Psol 6 and Psol 10 were shown to be transferable to P. gaudichaudianum and P. regnellii, but not to P. malacophyllum. Preliminary cluster analyses based on the polymorphism of the amplified products suggested that Psol 3 has lower potential than Psol 6 and Psol 10 for discrimination of Piper species.

Plants use a diverse mix of defenses against herbivores, including multiple secondary metabolites, which often affect herbivores synergistically. Chemical defenses also can affect natural enemies of herbivores via limiting herbivore populations or by affecting herbivore resistance to parasitoids. In this study, we performed feeding experiments to examine the synergistic effects of imides and amides (hereafter “amides”) from Piper cenocladum and P. imperiale on specialist (Eois nympha, Geometridae) and generalist (Spodoptera frugiperda, Noctuidae) lepidopteran larvae. Each Piper species has three unique amides, and in each experiment, larvae were fed diets containing different concentrations of single amides or combinations of the three. The amides from P. imperiale had negative synergistic effects on generalist survival and specialist pupal mass, but had no effect on specialist survival. Piper cenocladum amides also acted synergistically to increase mortality caused by parasitoids, and the direct negative effects of mixtures on parasitoid resistance and pupal mass were stronger than indirect effects via changes in growth rate and approximate digestibility. Our results are consistent with plant defense theory that predicts different effects of plant chemistry on generalist versus adapted specialist herbivores. The toxicity of Piper amide mixtures to generalist herbivores are standard bottom-up effects, while specialists experienced the top-down mediated effect of mixtures causing reduced parasitoid resistance and associated decreases in pupal mass.

Premise of the study: This is the first large-scale study comparing leaf crystal macropatterns of the species-rich sister genera Piper and Peperomia. It focuses on identifying types of calcium oxalate crystals and their macropatterns in leaves of both genera. The Piper results are placed in a phylogenetic context to show evolutionary patterns. This information will expand knowledge about crystals and provide specific examples to help study their form and function. One example is the first-time observation of Piper crystal sand tumbling in chlorenchyma vacuoles. Methods: Herbarium and fresh leaves were cleared of cytoplasmic content and examined with polarizing microscopy to identify types of crystals and their macropatterns. Selected hydrated herbarium and fresh leaf punches were processed for scanning electron microscopy and x-ray elemental analysis. Vibratome sections of living Piper and Peperomia leaves were observed for anatomical features and crystal movement. Key results: Both genera have different leaf anatomies. Piper displays four crystal types in chlorenchyma—crystal sand, raphides, styloids, and druses, whereas Peperomia displays three types—druses, raphides, and prisms. Because of different leaf anatomies and crystal types between the genera, macropatterns are completely different. Crystal macropattern evolution in both is characterized by increasing complexity, and both may use their crystals for light gathering and reflection for efficient photosynthesis under low-intensity light environments. Conclusions: Both genera have different leaf anatomies, types of crystals and crystal macropatterns. Based on Piper crystals associated with photosynthetic tissues and low-intensity light, further study of their function and association with surrounding chloroplasts is warranted, especially active crystal movement.

Four new compounds were isolated from the branches of Piper montealegreanum Yuncker, a shrub found in the Amazon rainforest, including two new dihydrochalcones named claricine (1) and maisine (2), a cinnamic acid derivative 3 and a phenylalkanoid 4, along with a porphyrin identified as the known compound phaeophytin a (5). The structures were established using spectroscopic experiments, including 1D and 2D NMR and HRESIMS experiments, performed on the two monoterpene dihydrochalcones and their monoacetyl derivatives. The structural diversity of these substances is very important for the Piper genus chemotaxonomy.

Background Among the Solanaceae plants, the pepper genome is three times larger than that of tomato. Although the gene repertoire and gene order of both species are well conserved, the cause of the genome-size difference is not known. To determine the causes for the expansion of pepper euchromatic regions, we compared the pepper genome to that of tomato. Results For sequence-level analysis, we generated 35.6 Mb of pepper genomic sequences from euchromatin enriched 1,245 pepper BAC clones. The comparative analysis of orthologous gene-rich regions between both species revealed insertion of transposons exclusively in the pepper sequences, maintaining the gene order and content. The most common type of the transposon found was the LTR retrotransposon. Phylogenetic comparison of the LTR retrotransposons revealed that two groups of Ty3/Gypsy -like elements (Tat and Athila) were overly accumulated in the pepper genome. The FISH analysis of the pepper Tat elements showed a random distribution in heterochromatic and euchromatic regions, whereas the tomato Tat elements showed heterochromatin-preferential accumulation. Conclusions Compared to tomato pepper euchromatin doubled its size by differential accumulation of a specific group of Ty3/Gypsy -like elements. Our results could provide an insight on the mechanism of genome evolution in the Solanaceae family.

Plants defend themselves against herbivores and pathogens with a suite of morphological, phenological, biochemical, and biotic defenses, each of which is presumably costly. The best studied are allocation costs that involve trade-offs in investment of resources to defense versus other plant functions. Decreases in growth or reproductive effort are the costs most often associated with antiherbivore defenses, but trade-offs among different defenses may also occur within a single plant species. We examined trade-offs among defenses in closely related tropical rain forest shrubs (Piper cenocladum, P. imperiale, and P. melanocladum) that possess different combinations of three types of defense: ant mutualists, secondary compounds, and leaf toughness. We also examined the effectiveness of different defenses and suites of defenses against the most abundant generalist and specialist Piper herbivores. For all species examined, leaf toughness was the most effective defense, with the toughest species, P. melanocladum, receiving the lowest incidence of total herbivory, and the least tough species, P. imperiale, receiving the highest incidence. Although variation in toughness within each species was substantial, there were no intraspecific relationships between toughness and herbivory. In other Piper studies, chemical and biotic defenses had strong intraspecific negative correlations with herbivory. A wide variety of defensive mechanisms was quantified in the three Piper species studied, ranging from low concentrations of chemical defenses in P. imperiale to a complex suite of defenses in P. cenocladum that includes ant mutualists, secondary metabolites, and moderate toughness. Ecological costs were evident for the array of defensive mechanisms within these Piper species, and the differences in defensive strategies among species may represent evolutionary trade-offs between costly defenses.

A simple and convenient method was established for simultaneous quantitative determination of piperine and piperlonguminine in dried fruits of Piper longum and allied plants. The average content of piperine in P. longum (18.26 mg/g, range 12.05–33.23 mg/g) was about one half that of P. nigrum (40.09 mg/g, range 29.57–54.23 mg/g), but the content of piperlonguminine in P. longum was in the range of 0.42–1.82 mg/g, and the average content of piperlonguminne (0.91 mg/g) was about seven times higher than that in P. nigrum (0.13 mg/g). A sample of P. longum from Vietnam and a sample of P. retrofractum collected in Ishigaki, Japan, showed high contents of piperine and piperlonguminine. On the other hand, a sample of P. betle collected in Taiwan showed low content of piperine, and piperlonguminine was not detected.

Essential oils from fresh Piperaceae leaves were obtained by hydrodistillation and analyzed by gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS), and a total of 68 components were identified. Principal components analysis results showed a chemical variability between species, with sesquiterpene compounds predominating in the majority of species analyzed. The composition of the essential oil of was described for the first time. The cytotoxicity of the essential oils was evaluated in peritoneal macrophages and the oils of , , and exhibited the highest values, with cytotoxic concentration at 50% (CC ) > 200 µg/mL. Both and displayed activity against , and were more selective for the parasite than for the macrophages, with a selectivity index (SI) of 2.35 and >5.52, respectively. These SI values were greater than the 1 for the standard drug pentamidine. The antileishmanial activity of the essential oils of and was described for the first time. , and displayed moderate activity against the H Rv bacillus, with a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 125 µg/mL. These results are relevant and suggests their potential for therapeutic purposes. Nevertheless, further studies are required to explain the exact mechanism of action of these essential oils.

Utilization of biological materials in synthesis of nanoparticles is one of the hottest topics in modern nanoscience and nanotechnology. In the present investigation, the silver nanoparticles were synthesized by using the leaf and stem extract of Piper nigrum. The synthesized nanoparticle was characterized by UV-vis spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmission electron microscope (TEM), energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDAX), and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR). The observation of the peak at 460 nm in the UV-vis spectra for leaf- and stem-synthesized silver nanoparticles reveals the reduction of silver metal ions into silver nanoparticles. Further, XRD analysis has been carried out to confirm the crystalline nature of the synthesized silver nanoparticles. The TEM images show that the leaf- and stem-synthesized silver nanoparticles were within the size of about 7–50 nm and 9–30 nm, respectively. The FTIR analysis was performed to identify the possible functional groups involved in the synthesis of silver nanoparticles. Further, the antibacterial activity of the green-synthesized silver nanoparticles was examined against agricultural plant pathogens. The antibacterial property of silver nanoparticles is a beneficial application in the field of agricultural nanotechnology.