Piperine Improves Digestion and Enhances bioavailability
Article by Stefan Burns - Updated July 2022. Join the Wild Free Organic email newsletter!
There exists a phytochemical that dramatically improves digestion while also boosting the bioavailability and absorption of nutrients. It’s a potent anti-inflammatory, has neuroprotective effects, and can even reduce the toxicity of certain chemicals. With such a broad range of health effects, it almost seems too good to be true that piperine exists, and lucky for us it is 100% real and one of the main reasons why black pepper is the “king of spices” worldwide.
White pepper contains the greatest percentage of piperine
Piperine is the main active ingredient in black pepper, white in color and makes up 3-10% of a peppercorn by weight, and piperine is responsible for the pungency of black pepper. If the oxidized black skin of a peppercorn is removed, this creates what is known as white pepper, and white peppercorns have a greater percentage of piperine than black pepper does. This article examines the different uses of piperine, in particular its ability to dramatically enhance the bioavailability of certain chemicals like curcuminoids and psilocybin, and how to best supplement with piperine.
Piperine Health Benefits
Because piperine stimulates quite a few different pathways throughout the body, it has a wide range of health uses depending on what health issues are present and how it is dosed. The main health benefits of piperine are:
Increases bio-absorption of vitamins and trace elements
Improves digestion
Decreases fat accumulation
Antimicrobial
Effective against acute inflammation
Piperine ameliorates chronic mild stress
Stimulates anti-cancer pathways
Reduces the extent of toxicity for certain chemicals
Piperine is an inhibitor of MAO activity, which is a potential treatment path for depression, Parkinson’s disease, and Alzheimer’s disease. Piperine also can increase serotonin and dopamine levels under conditions of stress. Piperine’s effects on cancer, inflammatory diseases, and neurodegenerative diseases is still actively being researched into, and at this moment in time piperine is best known for it’s ability to enhance the absorption of other compounds like curcuminoids (antioxidant anti-inflammatories found in turmeric).
Together the digestive system and microbiome are the foundation of health from which everything else is dependent on.
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Piperine Curcumin Bioavailability Enhancement
Curcuminoids are the yellow to orange pigments found in turmeric. There are many different curcuminoids but the main and most common of them is curcumin. The issue with curcumin is that it has nearly zero physiological effects on the body if taken by itself because it has terrible bioavailability, measured at less than 1%. The bodies ability to absorb curcuminoids is limited due to its poor solubility in the aqueous phase of the digestive tract and what does reach the bloodstream is rapidly metabolized and excreted. A lot of time and effort has gone into increasing the absorption of curcumin, and piperine has proven to be one of the best ways to increase curcumin’s absorption and therefore increasing its health effects, the main ones of which are:
Antioxidant and anti-inflammatory
Anti-depressive and is neuroprotective
Dramatically reduces symptoms of osteoarthritis
Improves prostate health
Reduces inflammation of the digestive system
Piperine works synergistically with curcumin by inhibiting curcumin's rabid absorption by the liver and intestinal wall, thereby increasing the absorption of curcumin by 2000% (20x better). Now able to pass into the bloodstream in much greater quantities thanks to piperine, curcumin can circulate throughout the body and past the blood-brain barrier for much more powerful full body anti-inflammatory effects. It takes about one hour after supplementation for curcuminoids and piperine to reach max concentrations in the blood, and they are metabolized almost completely a few hours later.
Most studies that observed the bioavailability enhancing effects of piperine on curcumin used a ratio of 5 mg piperine to 500 mg curcumin, and as a result most supplements are formulated with the same ratio. New research is currently being done where the amount of piperine relative to curcumin is increased, and being considerate of all the health benefits piperine has of its own, increasing the ratio by 4x by supplementing with 500 mg curcumin and 20 mg piperine is worthwhile to try.
Piperine for Psilocybin Absorption
Because piperine has been shown to increase the ability of various phytochemicals (curcumin, green tea EGCG) to be absorbed into the blood stream, there is a growing interest in if piperine can aid in the absorption of other compounds like psilocybin. Psilocybin is a chemical produced by over 200 species of fungi that is water soluble and is biologically inactive. Once in the body though, psilocybin is rapidly metabolized into psilocin which creates psychedelic effects such as hallucinations, feelings of euphoria, changes in perceptions, and space/time distortions, and for these reason psilocybin is often used for spiritual journeys or in the treatment of mental illness.
Though good scientific evidence is very limited in regards to piperine’s ability to increased the absorption of psilocybin, mechanistically it should work as piperine in general increases gastrointestinal function and absorption ability. My personal anecdotal experience backs this up (N=1) as I’ve experimented with psilocybin using magic mushrooms while also taking some piperine. Piperine in theory is the perfect pair for psilocybin because it also has neurologic functions and can cross the blood-brain barrier like psilocin. Taking 1.5 grams of magic mushrooms paired with 25 mg of piperine increased the effect of the magic mushrooms noticably for me, to the point where it felt like I actually took about 2-2.5 grams of mushrooms. My experience in pairing piperine and psilocybin together is limited but it seems piperine makes magic mushrooms about 20-30% more potent simply by increasing the amount of psilocybin that successfully passes through the digestive system into the bloodstream.
Since psilocybin is water soluble, one effective way to use magic mushrooms is to powder them and stir that into a chamomile tea steeped in 170F water. Take the piperine supplement while drinking the tea.
Piperine for Medicinal Mushrooms
It’s also very likely that piperine increases the absorption and effect of medicinal mushrooms like reishi and cordyceps. Medicinal mushrooms have powerful immune-boosting and cognitive-enhancing health effects, and it’s worth keeping a piperine supplement on hand for use in boosting the absorption of herbal supplements like curcumin or medicinal mushrooms.
How to Supplement with Piperine Capsules
Piperine is one herbal supplement I always keep on hand because it enhances the absorption and actions of many other herbal supplements like turmeric and green tea. If herbal supplements do include piperine into their blend, it’s usually in amounts of 2-5 mg per serving, which is quite low. To supplement with piperine by itself or in conjunction with other herbals use 0.25-0.5 mg piperine per kg of bodyweight. A good starting dose is 10-25 mg.
Nootropics Depot Piperine
Nootropics Depot conveniently sells piperine extract in 10mg capsules. Piperine is highly sensitive and will degrade quickly when exposed to light, so supplementing with piperine in capsule form instead of with a powder is not only easier to dose but also lowers the amount of degradation that will occur due to light exposure.
The 10 mg capsules also make experimenting with piperine dosages quite easy. If interested start with 10 mg a few times and then increase to 20 mg or beyond. This is especially useful when digestive upset is being experienced. Consuming black pepper is one way to help ease digestive ailments, but it can be difficult to consume enough black pepper directly to be especially effective, but piperine can be supplemented at whatever 10 mg increment desired.
References:
Butt MS, Pasha I, Sultan MT, Randhawa MA, Saeed F, Ahmed W. Black pepper and health claims: a comprehensive treatise. Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition. 2013;53(9):875-886. https://doi.org/10.1080/10408398.2011.571799
Rahman Khan Z, Moni F, Sharmin S, et al. Isolation of bulk amount of piperine as active pharmaceutical ingredient (Api) from black pepper and white pepper(<i>piper nigrum</i> l.). PP. 2017;08(07):253-262. https://doi.org/10.4236/pp.2017.87018
Shoba G, Joy D, Joseph T, Majeed M, Rajendran R, Srinivas PS. Influence of piperine on the pharmacokinetics of curcumin in animals and human volunteers. Planta Med. 1998;64(4):353-6.
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