A critical review on the pharmacognosy and chemistry of the fruiting spikes of piper longum L

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