Historical Spice as a Future Drug: Therapeutic Potential of Piperlongumine

Background: Spice and spice-derived compounds have been identified and explored for their health benefits since centuries. One of the spice long pepper has been traditionally used to treat chronic bronchitis, asthma, constipation, gonorrhea, paralysis of the tongue, diarrhea, cholera, malaria, viral hepatitis, respiratory infections, stomach ache, diseases of the spleen, cough, and tumors. Methods: In this review, the evidences for the chemopreventive and chemotherapeutic potential of piperlongumine have been described. Results: The active component piperlonguime has shown effective against various ailments including cancer, neurogenerative disease, arthritis, melanogenesis, lupus nephritis, and hyperlipidemic. These beneficial effects of piperlongumine is attributed to its ability to modulate several signaling molecules like reactive oxygen species, kinases, proteasome, proto-oncogenes, transcription factors, cell cycle, inflammatory molecules and cell growth and survival molecules. Piperlongumine also chemosensitizes to drugs resistant cancer cells. Conclusion: Overall the consumption of long peppers is therefore recommended for the prevention and treatment of various diseases including cancer, and thus piperlongumine may be a promising future candidate drug against cancer.