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Commonly known as wild pepper, Piper capense (P. capense) is a culinary herb mainly used as a secret in preparation of “Nkui” and “Nah poh” in Bayangam, West Cameroon. However, it also has many interesting pharmacological properties, which is why the people of sub-Saharan Africa so highly prize it for the treatment of multiple human pathologies. This study aimed to highlight the traditional uses, phytochemical composition, biological activities, and toxicological profile of the P. capense plant, to draw the attention of pharmaceutical companies to its enormous potential for the development of future phyto- or pharmaceutical products. Documentary research was meticulously carried out in the Web of Sciences, Scopus, Pubmed/Medline, and Google Scholar databases according to PRISMA 2020 guidelines. The results show that extracts and compounds isolated from Piper capense have interesting anticancer, antibacterial, antimalarial, hypoglycemic, anti-epileptic, and antidepressant activities. Methanolic extracts and essential oils from P. capense exhibit no harmful effects when directly applied to normal human hepatocytes, umbilical cord cells, intestinal cells, and keratinocyte cell lines. Additionally, methanolic extracts administered acutely or subchronically at low doses (≤250 mg/kg body weight) in Wistar rats also demonstrate no adverse effects. In conclusion, given its interesting activities, P. capense is a viable option for developing new antimalarial, anticancer, antibacterial, hypoglycemic, anti-epileptic, and antidepressant drugs. However, many avenues still need to be explored before translation into drugs.

Commonly known as wild pepper, Piper capense (P. capense) is a culinary herb mainly used as a secret in preparation of "Nkui" and "Nah poh" in Bayangam, West Cameroon. However, it also has many interesting pharmacological properties, which is why the people of sub-Saharan Africa so highly prize it for the treatment of multiple human pathologies. This study aimed to highlight the traditional uses, phytochemical composition, biological activities, and toxicological profile of the P. capense plant, to draw the attention of pharmaceutical companies to its enormous potential for the development of future phyto- or pharmaceutical products. Documentary research was meticulously carried out in the Web of Sciences, Scopus, Pubmed/Medline, and Google Scholar databases according to PRISMA 2020 guidelines. The results show that extracts and compounds isolated from Piper capense have interesting anticancer, antibacterial, antimalarial, hypoglycemic, anti-epileptic, and antidepressant activities. Methanolic extracts and essential oils from P. capense exhibit no harmful effects when directly applied to normal human hepatocytes, umbilical cord cells, intestinal cells, and keratinocyte cell lines. Additionally, methanolic extracts administered acutely or subchronically at low doses (≤250 mg/kg body weight) in Wistar rats also demonstrate no adverse effects. In conclusion, given its interesting activities, P. capense is a viable option for developing new antimalarial, anticancer, antibacterial, hypoglycemic, anti-epileptic, and antidepressant drugs. However, many avenues still need to be explored before translation into drugs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Piper capense Linn is a plant used in Cameroon to treat cancer and several other diseases such as urinary tract disorder, fever, stomach-ache and to improve appetite. The methanol extract of Piper capense has been reported for its antiproliferative activity towards several human cancer cell lines. The aim of this work was to evaluate the acute and subchronic oral toxicities of a methanol extract from P. capense fruits on rats. The acute oral toxicity assay was carried out by administration of a single dose of 5000 mg/kg body weight of methanol extract of the Piper capense to five female rats, after which the behavior of the animals and the number of deaths were noted after 48 h. The animals were then kept for observation for 14 days. On the 15th day, the rats were sacrificed and macroscopic observation of the organs was made. Concerning the subchronic toxicity study, the rats composed of males and females received three doses (250, 500 and 1000 mg/kg body weight/day) for a period of 28 days by oral gavage. General animal behavior, food intake, weight gain, organ weights, haematological parameters, serum, and urinary biochemical parameters, and histological sections of liver and kidneys, were evaluated. Methanol extract from the Piper capense fruits did not cause any death in rats that were administered a single dose of 5000 mg/kg body weight of extract and therefore, the letal dose 50 (LD50) of the extract is greater than 5000 mg/kg body weight. Subchronic administration of the methanol extract of Piper capense fruits showed significant variations (P > 0.05) after analysis of certain biochemical parameters: serum urea, urinary urea, alanine aminotransferase (ALAT), aspartate aminotransferase, (ASAT), serum protein; in both male and female rats that received the dose of 1000 mg/kg body weight/day. No major signs of toxicity were observed in the liver and kidneys of animals after analysis of the histological sections performed. Beside, some signs of toxicity were observed, including cell lysis and inflammation on the liver and kidney organs at a dose of 1000 mg/kg body weight/day. Finally, the methanol extract of Piper capense fruits is safe at lower doses, but could cause some damages at doses as high as 1000 mg/kg body weight/day. Consequently, it should be taken with caution when used in therapy.

The fruits of P. capense from Ethiopia were hydro-distilled with Clevenger apparatus to furnish 2.6-2.8% yellowish oil which was analyzed with GC–MS. Results of the GC-MS analysis revealed the presence of twenty one components with the major ones are β-caryophyllene (5%), g-muurolene (7.22%), germacrene D (9.30%), dihydroxy-isocalamendiol (11.6%), and cis-muurola-3,5-diene (15.6%). The fruits were also successively extracted with n-hexane and EtOAc to give 1.3% and 2.3% yield on dry weight basis, respectively. The EtOAc extract was screened for the presence of secondary metabolites which showed the presence of alkaloids, phenols, steroids, flavonoids, saponins and terpenoids while tannin was not detected. The EtOAc extract after silica gel column chromatography resulted in the isolation of 5-hydroxy-7,4’-dimethoxyflavone. The DPPH radical scavenging activity of the EtOAc extract, essential oil and 5-hydroxy-7,4’-dimethoxyflavone were evaluated and found to inhibit DPPH radical by 78%, 70% and 84% at 100 µg mL-1, respectively. Likewise, the EtOAc extract, essential oil and 5-hydroxy-7,4’-dimethoxyflavone inhibited peroxidation of lipid by 74, 64 and 80%, respectively. The results are significant compared to ascorbic acid used as positive control suggesting the use of the fruit of P. capense as a natural antioxidant.

Context: Parasites are the leading killers in subtropical areas of which malaria took the lion share from protozoan diseases. Measuring the impact of antimalarial drug resistance is difficult, and the impact may not be recognized until it is severe, especially in high transmission areas. Aims: To evaluate the in vivo antimalarial activities of hydroalcoholic extracts of the roots of Piper capense and Adhatoda schimperiana, against Plasmodium berghei in mice. Methods: Four-day suppressive and curative test animal models were used to explore the antimalarial activities of the plants. 200, 400, and 600 mg/kg of each plant extract was administered to check the activities versus vehicle administered mice. Mean survival time and level of parasitemia were the major variables employed to compare the efficacy vs. negative control. Results: In both models the 400 and 600 mg/kg doses of Adhatoda schimperiana and the 600 mg/kg dose Piper capense. showed significant parasitemia suppression and increased in mean survival time at p≤0.05. The middle dose of Piper capense had a border line inhibition where the extracts were considered active when parasitemia was reduced by ≥ 30%. Conclusions: The hydroalcoholic extracts of the roots of Adhatoda schimperiana and Piper capense possess moderate antimalarial activities, which prove its traditional claims. Thus, further studies should be done to isolate the active constituents for future use in the modern drug discovery.

Shade tolerant spices such as Aframomum angustifolium and Piper capense are found as indigenous wild species in the Sheka, Kaffa and Bench Maji forests in Ethiopia. The farmers in Bench Maji, Kaffa and Sheka zones are engaged in harvesting and production of non-timber forest products including forest wild and semi-wild coffee, forest honey, wild forest spices and bamboo. The aim of the study was to identify trees used as shade or support for spices and their characteristics in the study area. Five potential districts were purposively selected based on the availability of shade loving spice resources. A total of 130 farmer households and 10 investors those who work on spice related activities were randomly selected from the five districts. Farmers' households and investors were interviewed with semi-structured questionnaires. Observation, key informant interview and focused group discussions were also used with an interdisciplinary team. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. Results of the study indicates that averagely households has 2.54 ha land for cultivating different agricultural crops including spices. Most of the shade species for spice production (82.3%) were indigenous tree species retained on home gardens and also some of the tree species planted by farmers are native to the area. In general, Millettia ferruginea and Albidia gumminifera were frequently used shade trees for spices production over other tree species. Grevillea robusta and Erythria brucei were used as support tree species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fruits of P. capense from Ethiopia were hydro-distilled with Clevenger apparatus to furnish 2.6-2.8% yellowish oil which was analyzed with GC-MS. Results of the GC-MS analysis revealed the presence of twenty one components with the major ones are β-caryophyllene (5%), γ-muurolene (7.22%), germacrene D (9.30%), dihydroxy-isocalamendiol (11.6%), and cis-muurola-3,5-diene (15.6%). The fruits were also successively extracted with n-hexane and EtOAc to give 1.3% and 2.3% yield on dry weight basis, respectively. The EtOAc extract was screened for the presence of secondary metabolites which showed the presence of alkaloids, phenols, steroids, flavonoids, saponins and terpenoids while tannin was not detected. The EtOAc extract after silica gel column chromatography resulted in the isolation of 5-hydroxy-7,4'-dimethoxyflavone. The DPPH radical scavenging activity of the EtOAc extract, essential oil and 5-hydroxy-7,4'-dimethoxyflavone were evaluated and found to inhibit DPPH radical by 78%, 70% and 84% at 100 µg mL-1, respectively. Likewise, the EtOAc extract, essential oil and 5-hydroxy-7,4'-dimethoxyflavone inhibited peroxidation of lipid by 74, 64 and 80%, respectively. The results are significant compared to ascorbic acid used as positive control suggesting the use of the fruit of P. capense as a natural antioxidant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]