Ethenobotanical and Recent Phytopharmacological Research of Piper longum Linn: a Review

Herbal medicine is currently in demand not only in developing countries but also in developed countries because of their easy availability, low cost and minimum side effects. Long time traditional use of most of the herbs for therapeutic purposes provides a data regarding their safe clinical usage. Piper longum linn is one among such herbs mentioned in various Unani pharmacopeia’s and is indicated for various ailments of human body. It belongs to family piperacea. In Unani system of medicine it is commonly known as Filfil daraz and from last hundreds of years the drug piper longum linn  been accepted to  be as good therapeutic agent particularly for cough, spasmodic pain, inflammation and flatulence.  on the other hand recent Bioavailability enhancing and antioxidant property  has increased it importance for further clinical research . In the present review it has been tried to give a comprehensive data regarding its ethenobotonical particularly of Unani background and phytopharmacological profile of the drug so that to provide a bird eye view presentation of its historical and modern research aspect. Key words:  Herbal medicine, Filfil daraz, piper longum linn, phytopharmocology