Molecular Dynamics and Quantum Chemical Studies on Piperine, a Naturally Occurring Alkaloid

Piperine (a naturally occurring alkaloid), is a biologically active natural product belonging to the alkaloid series of compounds. In this study, the spectral characterization of piperine isolated from black pepper has been performed using FT-IR, ¹H-NMR, and ¹³C-NMR. To explain spectral features, we have calculated the vibrational frequencies of the optimized structure of piperine using the B3LYP/6-311 + G(d,p) level of theory and NMR spectra using the GIAO method. All vibrational modes of the title molecule have been assigned based on potential energy distribution. The calculated scaled wavenumbers and NMR chemical shifts show good agreement with the experimental FT-IR and NMR data, respectively. To assess the bioactivity of piperine, we have first performed molecular docking using the ITK receptor and subsequently, the molecular dynamics simulation of the resulting complex for 100 ns. The results suggest the potential of piperine for possible anti-inflammatory action.