Nanomaterial Assisted Electrochemical Detection of Isolated Piperine: a Phytochemical From Long Pepper

Herein, piperine, a phytochemical present in long pepper was quantitatively analyzed via an electrochemical technique using a chemically modified electrode. Mesoporous nanomaterial was utilized as a base matrix to carry out the experiments. The piperine was isolated from crude long pepper through a standard procedure. Glassy carbon electrode was chemically modified with mesoporous carbon matrix and isolated piperine designated as GCE/GMC@piperine. The cyclic voltammetry response gave a perfect redox response of piperine at E’ = +0.2 V vs. Ag/AgCl at 50 mV s-1 in pH 7 PBS. Effects of scan rate and solution pH were studied. Further, it was observed that a change in concentration of piperine is directly proportional to the redox peak current obtained. Therefore, this study could act as a key for quantitative analysis of piperine, a naturally occurring phytochemical in natural products such as pepper, long pepper, white pepper, etc. This is a prototype study and can be further extended to disposable screen printed electrodes for portable analysis.