Botany names

Description - Aromatic climbers with stout roots; stems jointed. Leaves ovate, cordate. Spikes cylindrical, peduncled. Fruits ovoid, yellowish- orange Piper longum is a slender andaromatic climber, rooting at the nodes. leaves alternate with lower once broadly ovate and cordate, entire and .smooth. Flowers in solitary spikes. Fruit is a small blackish green, sunk in the fleshy spike. which is about 1 inch long.

Chemical Constituents- Roots contain alkaloids - piperlongumine, piperlonguminine, pipeline, sesamin, methyl cinnamate, sterols, steroids, reducing sugars, glycosides. Fruits yield essential oil which consists of monocyclic sesquiterpenes, piperidine alkaloids pipernonaline, piperundecalidine, isobutyl amide, longamide, guiniensine; lignans pluviatilol, methyl pluviatilol (fargesiln), sesamine, asarinine and pipataline. Root and stem bark contain alkaloid piplartine, piperlongumine, essential oil sesamin. Leaves contain hentriacontane, hentriacontanone-26, triacontanol and beta-sitosterol

Use - Roots and fruits used in respiratory tract diseases, as a counter irritant and analgesic fbr muscular pains and inflammations; as snuff in coma and drowsiness and internally as a carminative; as sedative in insomnia and epilepsy; as cholagogue in obstructions of bile duct and gall bladder and as an emmenagogue and abortifacient Fruit is used in cough cold, respiratory problems, skin diseases, dyspepsia, in hormonal imbalances, to treat tumors It is added to many medicines which are used to treat TB , tumors, skin disorder, diabetes Etc.