Do you have a shaker of black pepper on your kitchen table?
By Bob Livingston
#twill #tcot #health #canser #sbalich #erbs #medicine
The round black pellets ground into the pepper we are all familiar with come from a spice called piper nigrum. But long-forgotten outside of India and Southeast Asia is its former rival, piper longum. The Indian long pepper. Its use was so widespread at one point that its Sanskrit name, pippali, is the predecessor to the English word pepper.
The Indian long pepper comes from a flowering vine that is part of Ayurvedic medicine, one of the oldest medical systems known to man. The long pepper’s benefits were even cited by Hippocrates, the ancient Greek physician known as the father of medicine. Within each flower on the vine are long black spikes that are the pepper.
When China’s Wuhan University School of Pharmaceutical Sciences looked at Indian long pepper (Piper longum) extracts, they discovered 5 of the compounds were anti-inflammatory, and 8 of the 15 tested were better at relieving pain than the drug indomethacin. Many of the compounds also had “significant cytotoxicity against cancer cells. [They] were found to reduce colony formation, inhibit cell migration and promote apoptosis.”
That’s researcher-speak meaning the Indian long pepper’s compounds kill cancer cells, stop cancer cells from joining together, and stop them from spreading.
Piperine, one of those main compounds, has a long history of medicinal use, and can enhance absorption of other nutrients and phytochemicals (plant chemicals). But, more importantly, it has chemopreventive activities without affecting normal cells.
Another important extract is called Piperlongumine (PL). These two are so medicinally valuable because, as noted by researchers at the School of Pharmaceutical Education and Research in India, they “exhibit a wide range of activities including anti-inflammatory, analgesic, anti-oxidant, anti-microbial, anti-cancer, anti-parkinsonian, anti-stress, nootropic, anti-epileptic, anti-hyperglycemic, hepatoprotective, anti-hyperlipidemic, anti-platelet, anti-angiogenic, immunomodulatory, anti-arthritic, anti-ulcer, anti-asthmatic, anthelmintic action, anti-amebic, anti-fungal, mosquito larvicidal and anti-snake venom.”
That is quite a list of tissues and organs protected by the Indian long pepper. No wonder the medical establishment and the pharmaceuticals are so interested in researching this natural medicinal plant. It’s a shame they only want to capitalize on Piper longum to enhance drug treatments of cancer, not make use of its natural cancer-fighting abilities.
In addition to its medical qualities, long pepper is used as a spice in the cooking of many Indian, Indonesian and Malaysian dishes.
Among its health uses in Ayurvedic medicine are as a cure for insomnia, headache, toothache, heart problems, inflamed hemorrhoids, irritable bowel syndrome, liver problems, hiccoughs, to soothe insect bites and reduce obesity. But its cancer-killing abilities are what stand out.
Scientists at the UT Southwestern Medical Center say Piperlongumine (PL) attacks many cancers including prostate, breast, lung, colon, lymphoma, leukemia, primary brain tumors and gastric cancer.
According to their report, researchers using X-ray crystallography were able to create molecular structures showing how PL is transformed after ingestion into a substance called hPL, an active drug that silences a gene found in abundance in tumors. The gene, GSTP1, produces a detoxification enzyme that is often overly-abundant in cancers.
Another study from Sweden’s Uppsala University Medical College found that PL also stimulates death of cancer cells by inhibiting a genetic process called ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS). In doing so it targets cancer cells but leaves healthy cells alone.
Breast cancer cells also fall victim to Piperlongumine. Around 70 percent of breast cancer cases are estrogen-receptor-positive. The Department of Food Science and Biotechnology in South Korea found that Indian long pepper was especially good at disrupting formation of this type of cancer and increases the body’s expression of cancer-fighting genes.
Piperine and PL also have a significant effect against oral cancer. They suppress tumor growth and stop cancer cell invasion and movement.
Long pepper is usually dried and ground up like the ‘other’ pepper you’re used to, and then used as a seasoning or spice. Chefs at high-end restaurants use it as an exotic dry rub for meats because it’s slightly sweet and less ‘spicy’ than ground black pepper. You can also crush it up and use it to season vegetables.
As an extract, look for the many supplements that use piperine’s absorptive power, or get the herb as a powdered fruit or root extract.
