Black Pepper Extract
- Type
- Plant extract
- Botanical name
- Piper nigrum
Plant and piperine
Black, white and green pepper all come from the fruits of Piper nigrum. Black peppercorns are whole fruits, dried when full-grown but not yet fully ripe. White peppercorns are ripe fruits, dried after the outer layer is removed. Green peppercorns are unripe fruits processed so that they stay green.[1]
Piperine is the main compound behind the sharp taste of pepper.[1] Reported piperine contents of black pepper range from 2% to 9%, with some samples up to 10%.[1] In European and other Western diets, piperine comes mainly from pepper used as a seasoning.[1]
Use in supplements
In food supplements, piperine is usually combined with other ingredients to increase how much of them the body absorbs. It is mostly added as a highly enriched black pepper extract, often with 95% piperine or more. This is why ingredient lists often name black pepper extract and give the piperine content second.[1] A daily dose of such supplements commonly provides 5 to 30 mg of piperine.[1]
Curcumin products often contain piperine from black pepper, and combining curcumin with piperine is one way to improve how well the body absorbs curcumin.[2] In a 1998 study, healthy volunteers absorbed twenty times more curcumin when they took 2 g of curcumin together with 20 mg of piperine from black pepper.[3]
Pepper used in cooking supplies piperine together with the other parts of the peppercorn, spread over several meals. A supplement supplies it in concentrated form, usually in one to three doses a day. This difference may change how piperine is absorbed and how it acts.[1]
Assessments by authorities
- As a flavouring: in 2006 the Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the World Health Organization found no safety concern at the estimated intake of piperine as a flavouring. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) agreed in 2015. The European Union allows purified piperine as a flavouring without set limits.[1]
- Australia: in 2007 the Complementary Medicines Evaluation Committee recommended at most 10 mg of piperine a day in herbal ingredients of listed medicines, because piperine can change how the body takes up medicines.[1]
- Canada: the 2019 Health Canada monograph on black pepper in natural health products sets a maximum of 14 mg a day of purified piperine for adults. Labels must advise people who take other medicines or natural health products, and pregnant or breastfeeding women, to consult a health care practitioner first.[1]
- Norway: in 2016 the Norwegian Scientific Committee for Food Safety (VKM) found that 1.5 mg of piperine a day in food supplements is unlikely to cause adverse effects in people aged 10 years or older.[1]
- Germany: a 2021 review by scientists of the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) advises taking the possible health risks of purified piperine in supplements into account.[1]
Safety
- Medicines: piperine can change how the body handles some medicines, in most studies increasing the amount that reaches the blood. With some medicines this may cause stronger or unwanted effects.[1] People who take medicines should ask a doctor before using a supplement with purified piperine.[1]
- Reproduction: in animal studies, high daily doses of piperine disturbed sperm production and harmed pregnancy and the unborn young. No human studies have looked at these effects.[1]
- Liver: liver injury has been reported in people who took turmeric products. Where the products were known, they often contained pepper extract to increase curcumin absorption. In some cases the daily amount of turmeric or curcumin was higher than the European Union herbal monograph recommends. A causal link could not be established.[4]
Most human studies of piperine were designed to test whether it works, not whether it is safe. Most gave little or no information on side effects. They give no adequate basis for judging the risks of purified piperine.[1]
Products containing it
- Curcumin with oleuropein capsules (D 210)
Sources
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 R. Ziegenhagen, K. Heimberg, A. Lampen and K. I. Hirsch-Ernst (German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment), Safety Aspects of the Use of Isolated Piperine Ingested as a Bolus. Foods 10 (2021), 2121.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, Turmeric. Retrieved 10 November 2026.
- ↑ European Medicines Agency, Assessment report on Curcuma longa L., rhizoma. EMA/HMPC/749518/2016, 25 September 2018.
- ↑ European Medicines Agency, Addendum to Assessment report on Curcuma longa L., rhizoma. EMA/HMPC/81467/2025, 19 November 2025.