# Diatrion piperion

**Diatrion pipereon**

**Known today as.** A warming powder of the three peppers, with aniseed and ginger.

Kind: Compound

## What did Canale use it for?

In morsels (ch. 6).

## What does modern science say?

Pepper acts on the gut: black pepper raises the secretion of gastric juice and relieves colic, as the British Pharmaceutical Codex of 1911 has it, dietary piperine stimulates the digestive enzymes of the pancreas, and anise is a carminative; so the powder did what it claimed in a small way.

## Pharmacognosy and toxicology

- **piperine**: from the three peppers
- **thymol**: from the thyme
- **gingerols**: 
- **anethole**: from the aniseed
- **honey**: 

**Mechanism.** The three peppers with thyme, ginger, and aniseed in honey: pepper raises the secretion of gastric juice, stirs the gut, and relieves colic, and dietary piperine stimulates the digestive enzymes of the pancreas and shortens the transit of food, which is a carminative for a cold stomach by any reckoning; piperine also raises the blood levels of drugs taken with it.

**Dose.** A spice electuary: Culpeper gave half a dram of the powder or two drams of the electuary, and half as much if age and strength would not bear it.

**Standing.** In the London Pharmacopoeia of 1653; its pharmacology is that of pepper.

## What lore surrounds it?

The names beginning *dia-* mean “made of”: Culpeper glosses *diacinnamomum* as “in plain English, a Composition of Cinnamon”; so *diamoschu* of musk and *diatrion piperion* of the three peppers.

## What did the older authorities say?

**Galen.** According to Culpeper, Galen was the author of the *diatrion pipereon*, “of the three peppers,” and appointed it to be made up with clarified honey; the London College gives the three peppers with aniseed and ginger, to heat the stomach and expel wind.

**Mesue and Nicolaus.** Carry it into the antidotaries as *diatrion pipereon*: Mesue for pains of the stomach bred of gross, raw phlegm, to warm the stomach and aid digestion against acid belching, and the *Antidotarium Nicolai* for phlegm of the stomach, a weak digestion, and cold; and it stood in the London Pharmacopoeia of 1653.

## Sources

- *Antidotarium Nicolai*.
- Mesue (1589). *I libri di Gio. Mesue de i semplici purgativi, et delle medicine composte*, ed. G. Rossetto. Venice.
- Srinivasan, K. (2007). “Black pepper and its pungent principle, piperine: a review of diverse physiological effects.” *Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition* 47.

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*Diatrion piperion.* In *Materia Medica*, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1, revised 2026-10-03. The Thinking Press. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/diatrion-piperion

Historical description, not medical advice.