Biological value of Piper nigrum

Chemical composition

Chemical EO
EOs are composed of different chemical compounds.
The constituents of plant EOs fall mainly into two distinct chemical classes: terpenes and
phenylpropanoids (Moghaddam, M. & Mehdizadeh, 2017).
Although terpenes and their oxygenated derivatives (terpenoids) are more frequent and
abundant in EOs, certain species contain high quantities of shikimates; namely,
phenylpropanoids, and when these compounds are present, they provide a specific odor and
flavor to the plant (Baser et al., 2015).
Essential oils are produced by various differentiated structures, especially the number and
characteristics of which are highly variable.
These oils are complex mixtures that may contain over 300 different compounds (Sell & C.S,
2006).
They consist of organic volatile compounds, generally of low molecular weight below 300.
Their vapor pressure at atmospheric pressure and at room temperature is sufficiently high so
that they are found partly in the vapor state (Vainstein et al., 2001).
These volatile compounds belong to various chemical classes: alcohols, ethers or oxides,
aldehydes, ketones, esters, amines, amides, phenols, heterocycles, and mainly the terpenes
(Dhifi et al., 2016).
Furthermore, essential oil components belong mainly to the vast majority of the terpene
family (Figure 1).
Many thousands of compounds belonging to the family of terpenes have so far been
identified in essential oils (Modzelewska et al., 2005).
For Piper species where several different essential oils were collected, there seems to be wide
variation in the compositions (da Silva et al., 2017).

Phytochemistry
Piper where it was reported that black pepper contains piperine, pipereidine, chavicin, starch,
protein, phellandrene, caryophyllene, cineole, p-cymene and carvone.
Piperine was isolated as the main alkaloid from pepper.
The presence of volatile oil consisting of terpenes, phellandrene, caryophyllene, piperonal-
dihydrocarbeol and caryophyllene oxidesabenene, myrecene, limonene, ∝ & β pinenes, ∝-
benganotene, humulene, p-cymene and ∝-selinene in Piper nigrum was also reported (Ghosh
et al., 2014).
The presence of volatile oil, resin, alkaloids, calcium, phosphorous and iron into fruits of
Piper were reported (Singh, Deep & Sharma, 2011).