The ethnomedical uses of Piper (胡椒 Hú Jiāo) plants as anticancer agents, in vitro cytotoxic activity of both extracts and compounds from Piper plants, and in vivo antitumor activity and mechanism of action of selected compounds are reviewed in the present paper. The genus Piper (Piperaceae) contains approximately 2000 species, of which 10 species have been used in traditional medicines to treat cancer or cancer-like symptoms. Studies have shown that 35 extracts from 24 Piper species and 32 compounds from Piper plants possess cytotoxic activity. Amide alkaloids account for 53% of the major active principles. Among them, piplartine (piperlongumine) shows the most promise, being toxic to dozens of cancer cell lines and having excellent in vivo activity. It is worthwhile to conduct further anticancer studies both in vitro and in vivo on Piper plants and their active principles.
Keywords: Amide alkaloids, Anticancer, Cytotoxicity, Piper, Piperaceae
Author Biographies
Yue-Hu Wang, Natural Products Research Laboratories, UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, People's Republic of China.
Chun-Lin Long, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, People's Republic of China.
College of Life and Environmental Sciences, Minzu University of China, Beijing, People's Republic of China.
Kuo-Hsiung Lee, Natural Products Research Laboratories, UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
Chinese Medicine Research and Development Center, China Medical University and Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan.
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