Aim: To compare doxycycline like oral efficacies of piperlongumine and a Piper longum fruits extract (PLE) as stress resistance inducers. Methods: Efficacies of oral pretreatments with 5 mg/kg piperlongumine or PLE or of 50 mg/kg doxycycline for 10 consecutive days in inducing stress resistance against alteration in body weights, core temperatures, gastric ulcers, and other pathologies in male mice triggered by occasional exposures to less than 1 min durations of unavoidable foot shocks were compared. Results: Doxycycline like long lasting protective effects of piperlongumine and PLE against gradual alterations in body weights, basal core temperatures and transient hyperthermic responses triggered by foot shocks during the post-treatment days were observed. Altered responses of stressed mice in tail suspension test observed one day after the last foot shock exposures and gastric ulcers and other pathologies quantified one day after the test were also suppressed in piperlongumine or PLE or doxycycline pretreated groups. Conclusion: Piperlongumine and crude Piper longum fruit extracts are doxycycline like long acting desensitizers of stress triggered co-morbidities. Reported observations add further experimental evidences justifying traditionally known medicinal uses of piper longum and other plants of the Piperaceae family, and reveal that piperlongumine is also another very long acting and orally active inducer of stress resistance. Efforts to confirm stress preventive potentials of low dose plant derived products enriched in piperlongumine or piperine like amide alkaloids in volunteers and patients can be warranted.
Key words: Piper longum, piperlongumine, piperine, foot-shock stress, hyperthermia, gastric ulcer, prophylaxes.
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