Piperine as a Potential Nutraceutical Agent for Managing Diabetes and Its Complications: A Literature Review

The global prevalence of diabetes and its related complications has increased drastically and is currently a worldwide health challenge. There is still an urgent need for safe and effective natural products and supplements as alternative and/or adjunctive therapeutic interventions. Nowadays, people pay more and more attention to the nutritional and medicinal value of food ingredients. As one of the most widely employed spices in cooking, pepper also has novel medicinal values attributed to its main component, piperine (Pip). Pip is an amide alkaloid with pleiotropic properties such as anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, anti-cancer, and other related activities. Recently, Pip has received increasing scientific attention due to its antidiabetic and related complication properties. However, the values of existing studies are limited due to being scattered and unsystematic. The present study reviewed the therapeutic potential and possible mechanisms of Pip in diabetes and related complications, with the aim of providing promising candidates for the development of novel and effective alternative and/or adjunctive nutraceutical agents for the management of diabetes.