Indian spices that provide flavor, color, and aroma to food also possess many
therapeutic properties. Ancient Indian texts of Ayurveda, an Indian system of medicine, detailed
the medicinal properties of these plants and their therapeutic usage. Recent scientific research
has established the presence of many active compounds in these spices that are known to
possess specific pharmacological properties. The therapeutic efficacy of these individual spices
for specific pharmacological actions has also been established by experimental and clinical
studies. The medicinal effects traditionally ascribed to Indian spices are validated by modern
pharmacological and experimental techniques, thus providing a scientific rationale to their
traditional therapeutic usage. Many plant-derived molecules have shown a promising effect in
therapeutics. Among the plants investigated to date, one showing enormous potential is the
Piperaceae. Piperine is an alkaloid found naturally in plants belonging to the pyridine group of
Piperaceae family, such as Piper nigrum and Piper cubeba. It is widely used in various herbal
cough syrups and it is also used in anti inflammatory, anti malarial, anti leukemia treatment. So
the present study was aimed to extract the phytochemical compounds in different solvent system
in Piper nigrum and Piper cubeba. In preliminary screening and confirmatory test it was
identified as alkaloid. High antioxidant activity was found in Piper cubeba ethanol extract i.e.
77.61±0.02% in comparison to Piper nigrum extracts with 74.61±0.02% with IC50
values10.54±0.12µg/mg and 14.15±0.02 µg/mg respectively.
Keywords: Piper nigrum, Piper cubeba, Phytochemical, Antioxidant