Especies del género Piper como fuente promisoria de metabolitos bioactivos en el período 2015-2021: revisión bibliográfica

Abstract

Piper genus is the most diverse and representative genus in the Piperaceae family, it includes diverse species which are distributed worldwide, mainly in Latin America. A large number of these plants have been used in traditional medicine, generating the interest of many scientific researchers for their biological properties. This bibliographic review collects data from studies dated from 2015 to 2021, which prove the different biological and therapeutic activities that this genus has, through the study of the diversity of secondary metabolites produced by these Latin American species. This scientific compilation evidence that the chemical composition of its essential oils and extracts is varied and abundant, with a predominance of secondary metabolites, like: monoterpenes, sesquiterpenes and phenylpropanoids, which have important biological properties, such as: antimicrobial, antiparasitic, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and cytotoxic against cancer lines, so they could be considered as alternatives for the development of new pharmacological molecules with less toxic and low cost for the treatment of various diseases, like: leishmaniasis, trypanosomiasis, malaria, bacterial and fungal infections, inflammatory diseases and related diseases with oxidative stress