Piper longum L., known as long pepper, is an edible and medicinal plant used as spice and for the treatment of stomach disease and analgesia in traditional Chinese medicine. N-Alkylamides are the major secondary metabolites in this plant. Sixteen known N-alkylamides were isolated from P. longum. Their structures were established on the basis of spectroscopic data and comparison to reported literatures. Among them, five compounds were isolated from this plant for the first time. Ethanol extract, compounds 1, 2, 3, 7 and 11 exhibited potent ability to increase the melanin content and weak stimulative effect on the tyrosinase activity in a concentration-dependent manner. Moreover, compound 2 also presented strong capacity to increase the tyrosinase activity in a concentration-dependent manner. These results indicated that P. longum might be a good natural source of lead compound for skin disorder diseases.
Keywords: N-alkylamides; Piper longum L.; melanin content; tyrosinase activity.