Black Pepper, Dietary Photochemicals in the Prevention of Diseases by Oxidative Stress (A-Review)

Medicinal plants are widely valued and are of prime concern globally. Scientific exploration on the flora and fauna of the globe increased, identifying drawbacks in synthetic utility of drugs like poor absorption, high dose, low bioavailability, and poor patient compliance. Plant based pharmaceuticals are considered as an alternative therapy and phytochemicals are being approved as drugs. Our interest is to explore on the spice, Black pepper which is classified under safe herb by FDA. The literature studies are collected estimating the efficacy of the spice against a variety of disease conditions like asthma, diabetes, hyperlipidaemia, inflammation, cancer, oxidative stress, gastrointestinal secretion, lipid metabolism, etc. In this review, we focussed on the scavenging capacity of black pepper in the abduction of free radicals. Increased in the production of free radicals is linked to causing oxidative stress in the body which is underlying cause for many lifestyle disorders like obesity, diabetes, congestive heart failure, myocardial ischemia, and different forms of cancer such as breast, prostate, lung, endometrial, skin, stomach, etc. This review focuses on the efficacy of black pepper and its relationship with many diseases.