Phytother Res. 2002 Nov; 16(7): 689-91.

Potential antiamoebic property of the roots of Piper longum Linn.

Ghoshal S, Lakshmi V.

Division of Microbiology, Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow - 226 001, India.

In an earlier study we reported the effect of ethanol extracts of Piper longum fruit against caecal amoebiasis in rats. A follow-up study to determine whether the roots possess similar antiamoebic activity was carried out. The ethanolic extract of roots was amoebicidal at 1,000 microg/mL in vitro and cured 88% of caecal amoebiasis cases, suggesting that both the root and fruit of P. longum possess antiamoebic activity to approximately the same extent.Copyright 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.