Abstract:
The present study deals with the pharmacognostic studies on the fruiting spikes of Piper longum L. and an
assessment on the chemical constituents of the volatile oil reported by earlier workers. A clear morphological
description of the fruiting spike is given. A number of unambiguous pharmacognostic characters such as rectangular or
square oil-containing cells, elongated parenchyma with large irregular chloroplasts, oval or isodiametric cells containing
both chloroplasts and starch grains and oval or isodiametric colorless cells with clusters of starch grains as well as absence of
sclerieds and sclerenchyma distinguishes this material. The absence of seed is another marker here. The conflicting reports
on the constituents of the volatile oil also is put to rest because it seems one of those studies probably on some material
adulterated by some other species of Piper
