Antioxidant, Antitubercular and Cytotoxic Activities of Piper imperiale

Abstract

Phenolic compounds are widely distributed in Nature and act as pharmacologically active constituents in many herbal medicines. They have multiple biological properties, most notably antioxidant, antibacterial and cytotoxic activities. In the present study an attempt to correlate the phenolic composition of leaf, flower and wood extracts of Piper imperiale, with antioxidant, antitubercular and cytotoxic activities was undertaken. The total phenol content ranged from 1.98 to 6.94 mg GAE/gDW among ethanolic extracts, and gallic acid, catechin, epicatechin, ferulic acid, resveratrol and quercetin were identified and quantified by HPLC. DPPH and ABTS assays showed high antioxidant activity of the leaf extract (EC50ABTS = 15.6 µg/mL, EC50DPPH = 27.3 µg/mL) with EC50 in the same order of magnitude as the hydroxyquinone (EC50ABTS = 10.2 µg/mL, EC50DPPH = 15.7 µg/mL). The flower extract showed strong antimicrobial activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv. All the extracts exhibited dose-dependent cytotoxic effects against MCF-7 cancer cells. This is the first time that a Piper extract has been found to be highly active against M. tuberculosis. This study shows the biological potential of Piper imperiale extracts and gives way to bio-guided studies with well-defined biological activities.

Cytotoxic analysis and chemical characterization of fractions of the hydroalcoholic extract of the Euterpe oleracea Mart. seed in the MCF-7 cell line

“…The epicatechin is among the most active compounds found in plants and has antioxidant and cytotoxic activity in MCF‐7 and HCT‐15 cells . Catechin and epicatechin were the most abundant secondary metabolites of the extract of Piper imperiale and demonstrated high antioxidant capacity and powerful antimicrobial and cytotoxic effect in the cell line MCF‐7 …”

Antitumour Efficacy of Piper tuberculatum and Piplartine Based on the Hollow Fiber Assay

“…In a screening of Venezuelan medicinal plant extracts for anticancer activity, the extracts of Piper san-vicentense and Piper arboretum showed the most cytotoxic and cytostatic activity, respectively [21]. Moreover, the extracts of Piper imperiale exhibited concentration-dependent cytotoxic effects against MCF-7 cancer cells [22]. The extract of the plant Piper longum showed potent immunomodulatory and antitumour activity, as demonstrated by different in vitro and in vivo animal models [23].…”

Intraspecific phytochemical variation shapes community and population structure for specialist caterpillars

“…Piper is chemically defended by a remarkable diversity of secondary compounds that exhibit a broad array of biological activities. These include antibacterial (Diaz et al ., 2012), antitubercular (Diaz et al ., 2012), antifungal (Johann et al ., 2009), and anti‐herbivore effects (Dyer et al ., 2003; Jeffrey et al ., 2014). Piper chemical defenses are known to vary within as well as among species and have been found to function additively or synergistically to deter or poison herbivores (Dyer et al ., 2003; Richards et al ., 2010) and could decrease the herbivores' defenses against parasitoids (Smilanich et al ., 2009).…”