Abstract
Ethnopharmacological Relevance: Pepper essential oils have potential immunomodulatory, anti-tumor, and anti-cancer activities. Pepper exhibits the potential to prevent or attenuate carcinogenesis as therapeutic tools. However, the related mechanism remains unelucidated. Aim of the Study: The present study aims to provide reasonable information for the explanation of the dissimilarity of the essential oils from white (WPEO) and black pepper (BPEO). Materials and Methods: WPEO, BPEO, and their single active component, as well as synthetic antioxidants, were compared by the cell model methods and chemical methods, including intracellular antioxidant activity (CAA), total antioxidant activities (TAA), superoxide radical (SR), hydroxyl radical (HR), DPPH radical (DR) scavenging activities and inhibition ability of lipoprotein lipid peroxidation (ILLP). Results: The median effective concentration (EC50) values (mg/mL) of the WPEO and BPEO of SR, HR, DR, and ILLP were 0.437 and 0.327, 0.486 and 0.204, 7.332 and 6.348, 0.688, and 0.624 mg/mL, respectively. The CAA units of WPEO and BPEO were 50.644 and 54.806, respectively. CAA, DR, and TAA of BPEO were significantly higher than those of WPEO (p < 0.05). The BPEO and WPEO can be differentiated as the former have higher correlations with 3-carene, α-pinene, β-pinene, and limonene while the latter has a higher caryophyllene correlation. The WPEO and BPEO show a good intracellular scavenging ability of reactive oxygen species in HeLa cells. Conclusion: Generally, pepper oil has stronger activities than single components, indicating that pepper is a broad-spectrum natural antioxidant.
Highlights
Natural antioxidants in plants are attracting more and more interest due to the global megatrend toward the application of natural additives to food or cosmetics (Alirezalu et al, 2019; Pateiro et al, 2021)
The present study aims to 1) compare the intracellular and in vitro antioxidant activities of essential oils from white (WPEO) and black pepper (BPEO), including intracellular antioxidant activity (CAA), total antioxidant activities (TAA), superoxide radical (SR), hydroxyl radical (HR), DPPH radical (DR) scavenging activities and the inhibition ability of lipoprotein lipid peroxidation (ILLP), 2) compare them with their single active component and the synthetic antioxidants, butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), propylgallate (PG) and ascorbic acid (Vc), and 3) relate the differences between the two peppers with their main components and explain whether white pepper is better than black pepper and why
The chemical compositions of WPEO and BPEO were extracted by ultrasonic-microwave assisted extraction (UMAE)
Summary
Natural antioxidants in plants are attracting more and more interest due to the global megatrend toward the application of natural additives to food or cosmetics (Alirezalu et al, 2019; Pateiro et al, 2021) Synthetic antioxidants such as butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), and propylgallate (PG) have been applied to free radical deactivation and lipid oxidation control at a lower cost than natural alternatives (Xu et al, 2021). Black pepper is one of the most popular worldwide spices and is known as “The King of Spices” or “Black Gold” because of its pungency, aromatic odor, and flavor (Wei et al, 2019) It is dried from the unripe and green berries of Piper nigrum L. with its outside pericarp, while white pepper is the white inside produced from fully ripe berries with the removing of the pericarp (Chithra et al, 2011). Despite these beliefs the question remains, is white pepper really better than black pepper?
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