Herb library · Herb · Piper longum
Long pepper (pippali)
A spice made from the catkin-like fruits of an Indian pepper plant, and a staple of Ayurvedic formulas. Almost all research is in the laboratory or in animals; one small trial in people has been done, and there is not enough evidence to know what it does as a medicine.
Traditional use
Called Pippali in Sanskrit, long pepper was probably the first pepper known in western Asia and Europe. Charaka's Samhita names its root the foremost of all things that provoke the appetite and aid digestion, and Dutt's 1877 compilation from Sanskrit medical works records that Hindu physicians used the dried catkins and the root, considered heating, for cough, hoarseness, asthma and dyspepsia, often as one of the three acrids (trikatu) with black pepper and ginger. Dutt also describes an infusion taken in doses that rose by three peppers a day for ten days and then fell, a pattern called vardhamana. It is still used as a spice and in Ayurvedic blends.
Traditional energetics
Ayurveda
Potency (virya): heating. The Materia Medica of the Hindus (1877), p. 243 (opens in a new tab)
What studies show
- Insufficient
Any medical use: a 2020 systematic review found many effects in lab and animal studies but insufficient scientific support for its traditional uses in people, and says human safety and absorption data are still needed.
- Insufficient
Underactive thyroid: a 2022 randomized trial in 40 people with primary hypothyroidism compared two ways of taking pippali alone for 19 days (rising-and-falling doses against a fixed dose), with no placebo group. Thyroid-stimulating hormone levels changed little in either group, and symptom scores did not differ significantly at day 20.
Be careful of
Cautions
- NoteSafe amounts as a medicine are not established: the 2020 review says toxicology data in people are still needed.
- PregnancyNCCIH advises talking with your clinician before using Ayurvedic products while pregnant or nursing.
- NoteSome Ayurvedic preparations include metals. The FDA warns that this makes some Ayurvedic products potentially harmful, and a 2015 survey found high lead or mercury levels in some of the supplements tested.
- Ask a clinicianTalk with a clinician or pharmacist before using this if you take prescription medicines, are pregnant or breastfeeding, or are giving it to a child.
From the old books
What herbals and dispensaries of the past printed. History, in their words.
“Of all things that provoke the appetite, that are used as Pāchana, and that cure epistasis (suppression of the urine), the foremost is the root of Pippali (Piper longum, Linn ; syn. Chavica Roxburghii).”
“An infusion of three long peppers is to be taken with honey on the first day, then for ten successive days the dose is to be increased by three peppers every day, so that on the tenth day the patient will take thirty at one dose. Then the dose is to be gradually reduced by three daily and finally the medicine is to be omitted.”
“As we have already stated, we think it highly probable that long pepper was the kind of pepper first known to the ancient inhabitants of Western Asia and Europe.”
Sources
- A systematic review on Piper longum L.: Bridging traditional knowledge and pharmacological evidence for future translational research (2020) (opens in a new tab) · NIH · read September 25, 2026
- Efficacy of Pippali in vardhamana and fixed dosage pattern in primary hypothyroidism - A randomized clinical trial (2022) (opens in a new tab) · NIH · read September 25, 2026
- Ayurvedic Medicine: In Depth (opens in a new tab) · NCCIH · read September 25, 2026
Reviewed September 25, 2026.