Abstract

The fruiting spike of Piper hapnium which resembles that of long pepper and used
as an adulterant, is studied for it’s phytochemical and pharmacognostic characters for the first
time. The spikes yielded 6.716% of a brown aromatic volatile oil consisting of apiole as the
principal component (63.9%) and the rest being sesquiterpenes such as β-bisabolene (6.3), (E)
β-farnesene (2.6), β-caryophyllene oxide (2.6), nerolidol (2.0) and (Z) β-farnesene (1.5) etc.
Piperine, acacetin and phenolics acids also were located in these fruits. Large polygonal starch
grains, rectangular oil cells, uniseriate filaments and sclereids are the important pharmacognostic
characters. The presence of apiole as the major component of oil and the above- mentioned
pharmacognostic characters and absence of piperlongumine distinguish fruiting spike of P. hapnium
from that of P. longum.

Key words: Piper hapnium, P. longum, Volatile oil, Pharmacognosy, Apiole, Acacetin.