Piper longum Linn: A review of its phytochemicals and their network pharmacological evaluation

Piper longum Linn (P. longum, also called as Indian long pepper) is one of the common culinary herb and has been extensively used as an important constituent of various indigenous medicines, specifically in traditional Indian medicinal system known as Ayurveda. Towards obtaining a global regulatory framework of P. longum‘s constituents, in this work we first reviewed phytochemicals present in this herb and then studied their pharmacological and medicinal features using network pharmacology approach. We developed high-confidence level tripartite networks consisting of phytochemicals – protein targets – disease association and explain the role of its phytochemicals to various chronic diseases. 7 drug-like phytochemicals in this herb were found as the potential regulators of 5 FDA approved drug targets; and 28 novel drug targets were also reported. 105 phytochemicals were linked with immunomodulatory potency by pathway level mapping in human metabolic network. A sub-network of human PPI regulated by its phytochemicals was derived and various modules in this sub-network were successfully associated with specific diseases.