# Long pepper (Piper longum)

**Piper longum*; Sanskrit *pippali**

**Known today as.** The catkin-like fruit of *Piper longum*.

Kind: Plant  
Qualities: Hot and dry (Galenic tradition).

## What was it used for?

Prized above black pepper in antiquity, in electuaries and warming powders; see [diatrion piperion](https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/diatrion-piperion).

## What does modern science say?

Similar in action to black pepper.

## Pharmacognosy and toxicology

- **piperine**: 3–5 per cent, the pungency
- **piperlongumine**: an amide of research interest
- **pipernonaline**: 

**Mechanism.** Piperine activates TRPV1, the capsaicin receptor, which is the heat and the reflex rise in digestive secretion; it also inhibits the liver enzymes CYP3A4 and glucuronidation and raises blood levels of many drugs, the basis of the Ayurvedic practice of pairing peppers with other remedies. Piperlongumine is studied as an anticancer lead, though the *Nature* paper that launched it (Raj et al., 2011) was retracted in 2018.

**Dose.** Safe as a spice; piperine at 20 mg raises curcumin absorption twentyfold (Shoba, 1998) and can do the same to drugs.

**Standing.** In the Ayurvedic pharmacopoeia (pippali); piperlongumine is in preclinical cancer work.

## What did the older authorities say?

**Pliny.** Gives the prices at Rome: long pepper fifteen denarii a pound, white pepper seven, black four.

## Sources

- Pliny, *Natural History* XII.
- Shoba, G., et al. (1998). “Influence of piperine on the pharmacokinetics of curcumin in animals and human volunteers.” *Planta Medica* 64.
- Raj, L., et al. (2011). “Selective killing of cancer cells by a small molecule targeting the stress response to ROS.” *Nature* 475; retracted 2018 (*Nature* 561).

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*Long pepper.* In *Materia Medica*, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1, revised 2026-09-25. The Thinking Press. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/long-pepper

Historical description, not medical advice.