Pepper is a very common spice used for centuries and it is well known for its pungent smell and hot taste. Pepper contains a biologically active compound named piperine (an alkaloid), which is responsible for this respective taste and smell. The extract of black pepper is termed as bioperine, which is composed of piperine.

Bioperine is considered as natural bioavailability enhancer that is associated with enhancing the absorption of nutrients and their bioavailability in human body and facilitates proper growth and nourishment. Traditionally it has used as an essential ingredient for several medicines in ayurveda. It has also used as health supplements and preservatives. Recently, bioperine is co-administered with several other nutrients such as fat soluble vitamin like Vitamin A, D, E, K, Vitamin C, minerals like calcium, iron, selenium, zinc, iodine and amino acids like tryptophan, threonine, lysine, leucine, isoleucine. These co-administrations have been carried out for enhancing its health significance and bioavailability.

Mechanism of action

• Bioperine increases the process of thermogenesis by enhancing the production of thermal energy in body. It is considered as the key factor of increasing nutrients absorption and bioavailability, thus bioperine is termed as thermonutrient
• Thermogenesis is a metabolic process of generating energy in human body at cellular level. It is associated with utilizing foods which are consumed and facilitating its digestion and intestinal absorption
• It is related with increasing blood supply within gastrointestinal tract that promotes nutrients absorption

• It also helps in the emulsification process of gastrointestinal substances that facilitates digestion
• It helps to increase active transport of nutrients, which is associated with enhancing their utilization

Health benefits

Role on metabolism

• It helps to enhance metabolism

• As mentioned above bioperine is responsible for enhancing digestion, absorption and utilization of nutrients in body through thermogenesis, hence it can be stated that it is related with improving the nutritional status of the body
• It helps in lipolysis (breakdown of fat within body), which is associated with increasing the internal temperature of body. It has seen that when the body burns more calorie then it produces more heat which is associated with increasing BMR
• Increased metabolic rate is related with increasing the energy expenditure of body that creates a negative energy balance leads to weight reduction. Hence it can be used as an effective remedial action for obesity

Role on absorption

• Bioperine helps to increase about 30% of the absorption of nutrients in body
• It helps to generate energy within body which is later utilized by the organs of gastrointestinal tract for facilitating digestion. Improved digestibility is associated with easy and quick conversion of complex ingested foods into their simplest form that can readily absorbed by intestinal epithelial cells

• It helps to emulsify (breaking down into small pieces) gastrointestinal food substances (especially fat), which is related with increasing the surface area of those respective food particles and enhances their digestion and absorption
• It is often co-administered with other nutrients to enhances the absorption of those respective nutrients

Role on nervous system

• Bioperine helps to increase the synthesis and release of several neurotransmitters like dopamine, serotonin and helps to stimulate transduction of nervous stimuli
• It helps to increase memory by enhancing the release of peptide hormones and which is associated with increasing the synthesis of neuron within central and peripheral nervous system leads to enhance the function of brain cells
• It helps to reduce stress and compulsiveness
• It is related with enhancing the mental abilities such as improving cognitive skills, intelligence, reasoning skills and attention

Role on immune system

• Bioperine helps to promote the growth of immune system by regulating immune responses
• It helps to prevent inflammation
• It is also associated with slowing down the reaction time of lymphocyte, which is responsible for proliferation of cells and results in the formation of clones. These clones of cells have antigen specificity and bind with specific antigen and destroy it along with controlling proper immune responses, which is coupled with preventing infections

Role on CRP

• CRP is termed as C reactive protein and it acts as an effective marker of infection. CRP is an important substance of inflammation process, where it helps to show responses against infection through apoptosis (programmed cell death), phagocytosis (engulfing microbes followed by its destruction), complement pathway (a pathway through which activation of antibody and phagocytes occurred against pathogens) and releasing of nitric oxide.
• Increase in CRP level indicates the occurrence of acute infection within body
• Recent studies and researches have shown that bioperine has a relationship with CRP level. Basically, it helps to reduce the CRP level and decreases the susceptibility of infections

Recommended allowance

The recommended dose of bioperine is 5mg per serving. Excess or poor consumption of bioperine may develop several harmful health complications. It is better to consume bioperine 30 to 60 minutes before meal.

Recent findings on bioperine

• Recent studies and researches have shown that bioperine has significant role in preventing drug resistant breast cancers (Pillai et al., 2020). It has seen that resistance of drug due to the heterogeneity of tumors often causes difficulty in treating cancers especially breast cancers. It has seen that phytonutrients are one of the most important biochemical substances that help to prevent drug resistant cancers. Bioperine is used as an effective preventive measure for treating these types of cancers as it contains piperine which is an effective phytonutrient

• Prolong deficiency of bioperine can affect the nutritional status of an individual. It helps to enhance the metabolism and nutrient absorption within body, hence it is related with promoting growth. Deficiency of bioperine interferes with proper digestion of food and the body cannot absorb nutrients as per its optimum level. Long term effect of inadequate nutrient absorption leads to developing several deficiency disorders and growth faltering. It is not a healthy condition and it should be prevented properly, through consuming balanced diet along with bioperine otherwise it would develop severe malnutrition
• Various researches have been carried out on the bioavailability enhancer property of bioperine and its application which have shown that co-administration of bioperine especially with vitamins and minerals have great significance on enhancing their absorption. According to current studies, consumption of iron (an important mineral) along with bioperine is related with improving iron storage within body. So, consuming such nutrient is better option especially for athletes as it is coupled with improving their endurance. Iron is essential for maintaining proper physical performance of body as it helps to enhance utilization, transporting and storage of oxygen within body. It is often seen that iron depletion occurred in athletes due to losses of iron through sweating or mechanical hemolysis that reduces their endurance hence to prevent iron depletion consumption of bioperine is a healthy choice (Fernández-Lázaro et al., 2020). Its consumption is also helpful for anemic women

Risk factors

It is beneficial to consume bioperine for utilizing food completely and obtaining adequate nutrition, but excessive consumption of bioperine may develop several health complications, which include –

• Skin rashes and redness in skin
• Slipping disorders
• Depression
• Loss of appetite
• Weight reduction
• Fatigue and general weakness
• Impairment in taste
• Nausea
• Vomiting
• Flatulence
• Swelling of abdomen and frequent abdominal pain
• Irritability
• Breathlessness

Chopra, B., Dhingra, A.K., Kapoor, R.P. and Prasad, D.N., 2016. Piperine and its various physicochemical and biological aspects: A review. Open Chemistry Journal, 3(1).

Fernández-Lázaro, D., Mielgo-Ayuso, J., Córdova Martínez, A. and Seco-Calvo, J., 2020. Iron and Physical Activity: Bioavailability Enhancers, Properties of Black Pepper (Bioperine®) and Potential Applications. Nutrients, 12(6), p.1886.

Franzen, B., Greenawalt, C. and Vlahos, S., 2017. The Effects of Oral Curcumin and Bioperine Supplementation on C-reactive protein In CrossFit Athletes.

Gage, M., 2017. The Effect of Myosync™ Supplementation on Physical Performance in Division II College Football Players.

Ginigaddara, G.A.S., 2018. Wonders of Spices in Sri Lanka. In Indian Spices (pp. 63-93). Springer, Cham.

Jamwal, R., 2018. Bioavailable curcumin formulations: A review of pharmacokinetic studies in healthy volunteers. Journal of integrative medicine, 16(6), pp.367-374.

Pillai, S.C., Borah, A., Jindal, A., Jacob, E.M., Yamamoto, Y. and Kumar, D.S., 2020. BioPerine Encapsulated Nanoformulation for Overcoming Drug-Resistant Breast Cancers. Asian Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences.

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