This Application Note from Knauer looks at a preparative method for isolating the alkaloid piperine from black peppercorns, using the compact Azura Process HPLC. The piperine product is then analysed using two column types to compare their performance against each other. The columns used were a Eurospher II C18 and a BlueShell 80-4.5 classic C8.
Black pepper (piper nigrum) is a widely used hot spice. Piperine is the main compound leading to bioactivity of black
and white pepper. It’s pungency has been estimated as 100,000-200,000 Scoville Unit.
Piperine is an alkaloid and it is the carboxamide of Piperic acid and Piperidine. It shows
low solubility in water, but is soluble in ethanol and other organic solvent. In recent decades, Piperine came into the focus of pharmaceutical research. It has antibacterial, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antiarthritic and other effects. The most interesting point is that Piperine increases the bioavailability of a number of therapeutic drugs as well as phytochemicals. The concentration of Piperine in black and white pepper ranges only from 3 to 8%. Therefore a purification step is required for the recovery of Piperine from natural pepper.
In this application note acetone is used for the extraction of Piperine from black pepper. This is followed by the isolation of this compound by preparative chromatography and a quality analysis of this product.
CLICK HERE for a PDF copy of this application note (550KB)
A Brief History of the World's Peppercorn Trade
By Joshua Fisher-Simpson
Humanity has always had an interest in foods and drink that give unusual and distinct tastes, effects, and other pleasures. Spices like peppercorns have been particularly desired for their distinct spicey taste that compliment a wide range of foods.
Peppercorns were, and still are, one of the more traded and used spices. It is thought to be native to southern India, particularly the Malabar coast. Through the Maritime Silk Route, from about the 3rd century BC onwards, pepper became a trade commodity throughout much of the old world. From the then Greek city states and the Eastern Mediterranean, to Eastern China, via much of South-East Asia. Pepper, being a tropical plant, also became widely grown in South-East Asia, and particularly in Indonesia, resulting in the name ‘Spice Islands’; a term given to the archipelago by the Europeans in later colonial times.
The development of the Silk Route only helped to spread the pepper trade throughout the known world: Central Asia, Eastern and Northern Africa, and through to the rest of Europe via Italy.
The drive for spices like pepper were so strong, that when the Ottoman Empire closed off and controlled the terminuses of the Silk Routes leading into the Eastern Mediterranean, the Europeans sought other ways through to Asia. This lead them to ultimately finding the Americas as they tried to go round the world in the opposite direction to reach India and the Spice Islands, and to circumnavigate Africa to get into the Indian Ocean, and India via The Cape of Good Hope.
Vasco Da Gama of the Kingdom of Portugal was the first European to round the cape to arrive in present day Kerala state of India, on 20 May 1498. Later other European colonial powers taking advantage of the lucrative spices, including pepper.
Today, peppercorns are largely grown in tropical areas of China, South-East Asia, Southern India, parts of Africa and South America. The colonial powers brought the pepper plant into their colonies in Africa and South America, to be able to supply their own home markets.
Joshua Fisher-Simpson: Nov 2020
