Piperine - the Spice of Life
Piperine - the Spice of Life

We are all very familiar with the hot taste of black pepper but don't usually give it a second thought beyond spicing up our food. If you bite into a whole peppercorn while eating your dinner, you will certainly notice! This heat is actually a manifestation of some of the active compounds found in black pepper, the most notable of these being piperine.


What is Piperine?

Piperine is one of the two compounds responsible for the pungency of black pepper. It has multiple health benefits including aiding with poor digestion and helping to relieve nausea and headaches as well as containing anti-inflammatory properties. Piperine's most significant benefit, however, is its ability to supercharge the bioavailability of other nutrients including Vitamin C, Co-enzyme Q10, Iron and Curcumin.


Piperine and Bioavailability

Bioavailability, a measure of how well the body is able to absorb and use a substance, is a problem with a number of nutrients, including Curcumin. It is all well and good taking supplements but if your body isn’t able to utilise the benefits in the capsules, tablets or drinks you might as well not bother. This is where piperine comes in.


BioPerine® - a patented form of piperine

RunStrong contains BioPerine® which is standardised to contain a minimum of 95% piperine. It is the only patented form of piperine to increase the bioavailability of other supplements. BioPerine® has been used as a bioavailability enhancer for over 20 years and in general is found to enhance absorption of nutrients by at least 30%. For the poorly absorbed Curcumin, this number can jump to 2000%!


Is Piperine safe?

BioPerine® is the only form of piperine to have undergone clinical studies to substantiate its safety and efficacy for nutritional use. It has received Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) status (April 2010) after a comprehensive review of the safety and toxicology data by an independent, international panel of scientists.


The next time you add a bit of pepper into your meal, take a moment to appreciate the power of this everyday spice. 



References

Shoba, G., Joy, D., Joseph, T., Majeed, M., Rajendran, R., & Srinivas, P. S. (1998). Influence of piperine on the pharmacokinetics of curcumin in animals and human volunteers. Planta medica, 64(4), 353–356. https://doi.org/10.1055/s-2006-957450

Fernández-Lázaro, D., Mielgo-Ayuso, J., Córdova Martínez, A., & Seco-Calvo, J. (2020). Iron and Physical Activity: Bioavailability Enhancers, Properties of Black Pepper (Bioperine®) and Potential Applications. Nutrients, 12(6), 1886. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12061886

 

Derosa, G., Maffioli, P., & Sahebkar, A. (2016). Piperine and Its Role in Chronic Diseases. Advances in experimental medicine and biology928, 173–184. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-41334-1_8


 

Meghwal, M., & Goswami, T. K. (2013). Piper nigrum and piperine: an update. Phytotherapy research : PTR27(8), 1121–1130. https://doi.org/10.1002/ptr.4972

 

Bang, J. S., Oh, D. H., Choi, H. M., Sur, B. J., Lim, S. J., Kim, J. Y., Yang, H. I., Yoo, M. C., Hahm, D. H., & Kim, K. S. (2009). Anti-inflammatory and antiarthritic effects of piperine in human interleukin 1beta-stimulated fibroblast-like synoviocytes and in rat arthritis models. Arthritis research & therapy11(2), R49. https://doi.org/10.1186/ar2662




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