コショウ科

The Piperaceae, also known as the pepper family, is a large family of flowering plants. The group contains roughly 3,600 currently accepted species in 5 genera. Numerous members of the Piperaceae family are used in the traditional medicinal systems of indigenous population for a wide variety of illnesses. Many studies have been undertaken to investigate these uses, with a large number of them focusing especially on the active ingredient Piperine and related compounds found in many members of this family, especially Black pepper, Long pepper, and Betel. The alkaloid piperine has been reported to be the major cytotoxic constituent of P. nigrum.