The Piperaceae (/ˌpɪpəˈreɪʃiː/), also known as the pepper family, are a large
family of
flowering plants. The group contains roughly 3,600 currently accepted species in 5 genera. The vast majority of species can be found within the two main genera: Piper (2,171 species) and Peperomia (over 1,000 species).[4]
Members of the Piperaceae may be small trees, shrubs, or herbs. The distribution of this group is best described as
pantropical.
The best-known species, Piper nigrum, yields most peppercorns that are used as spices, including
black pepper, although its relatives in the family include many other spices.[5]
Etymology
The name Piperaceae is derived from the
Sanskrit term pippali,
Sanskrit: पिप्पलि.[6]
Piper caninumPeperomia perciliata
Taxonomy
The
APG III system of 2009 recognizes this family, and assigns it to the order
Piperales in the unranked clade
magnoliids.[3] The family consists of five genera: Piper, Peperomia, Zippelia, Manekia, and Verhuellia. The previously recognised Pacific genus Macropiper, was recently merged into Piper.[7] A tentative cladogram showing relationships based on Wanke et al. (2007)[8] is shown below. This phylogeny was based on 6,000
base pairs of
chloroplast DNA. Only recently has it become clear that Verhuellia is sister to the other four genera in the family.[9]
Leaves are simple with entire margins, and are positioned at the base of the plant or along the stem, and can be alternate, opposite, or whorled in arrangement.
Stipules are usually present, as are
petioles. The leaves are often noticeably
aromatic when crushed.
Flowers
Inflorescences (in the form of spikes) are terminal, opposite the leaves, or located in the axils. Flowers are bisexual, with no
perianth, each flower is subtended by a peltate
bract. Stamens are 2–6, and
hypogynous, with 2-locular
anthers. There are usually 3-4
stigmas attached to a single
pistil per flower, which is 1 or 3-4
carpellate. The ovary is 1 locular, and superior.
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,[11][12] as well as
kavalactones found in
Kava.[13]
^Wanke, S., Jaramillo, M. A., Borsch, T., Samain, M.-T., Quandt, D., and Neinhuis, C. (2007) "Evolution of Piperales—matK gene and trnK intron sequence data reveal lineage specific resolution contrast". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 42: 477–497.
^Wanke, S., Vanderschaeve, L., Mathieu, G., Neinhuis, C., Goetghebeur, P., and Samain, M.S. (2007) "From Forgotten Taxon to a Missing Link? The Position of the Genus Verhuellia (Piperaceae) Revealed by Molecules". Annals of Botany, 99: 1231–1238.
^Samain et al. (2010) "Verhuellia is a segregate lineage in Piperaceae: more evidence from flower, fruit and pollen morphology, anatomy and development". Annals of Botany, 105.
^Derosa, Giuseppe; Maffioli, Pamela; Sahebkar, Amirhossein (2016), Gupta, Subash Chandra; Prasad, Sahdeo; Aggarwal, Bharat B. (eds.),
"Piperine and Its Role in Chronic Diseases", Anti-inflammatory Nutraceuticals and Chronic Diseases, Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, vol. 928, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 173–184,
doi:
10.1007/978-3-319-41334-1_8,
ISBN978-3-319-41334-1,
PMID27671817, retrieved 2021-06-09