During a research analysis of some traditional herbal remedies for vitiligo Dr. Amala Raman and her PhD student Zhixiu Lin discovered that an extract of a particular plant stimulated the production of melanocytes in cell cultures. After few years the name of that particular extract was revealed to be piperine – the compound that gives black pepper its spicy, pungent flavor. This research was partly funded by vitiligo society.
This research got temporarily suspended due to departure of Dr. Amala to the US and now another team at King’s College London has taken up the challenge. The results of their work would shortly be published in British Journal of Dermatology.
It has been found that synthetic derivatives of piperine can stimulate pigmentation and when its use is combined with UVR it gives frequent and long lasting pigmentation. Furthermore they discovered that four exposures of UVR were sufficient to re-pigment the skin using this combination and the repigmentation results took longer to fade out. They also noticed that piperine properly evened out the skin tone.
The major hurdle that needs to be overcome before piperine is used to treat vitiligo patients is its safety because anything that stimulates melanocytes may conceivably increase the chance of melanoma. It will take many years of further research and development before piperine comes out as a useful and secure vitiligo therapy.
