Piper is the representative genus of family Piperaceae. Piper species are pan-tropical in distribution and found in both the hemispheres. As the king of all spices, black pepper, Piper nigrum, led to the global expeditions culminating in the discovery of India and the new world. Piper species have been reported to possess various pharmacological activities such as insecticidal, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, antiplatelet, anti-hypertensive, antithyroid, antitumor activities and hepatoprotective properties. Botanical authentication of the plants of Piper species is difficult because of the morphological similarity among the species. This book describes ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled with triple quadrupole electrospray tandem mass spectrometry in multiple reactions monitoring (MRM) mode to study the quantitative variation of thirteen bioactive markers in different plant parts of ten Piper species.Features: Collection of Ayurvedic features and scientific evidence of the most important medicinal plants of Piper species. Describes chemical signatures for identification of Piper species. Provides easy-to-use analytical procedure for quality control of Piper species and its products.

Dr. Brijesh Kumar is a Professor (AcSIR) and Chief Scientist of sophisticated analytical instrument facility division, CSIR-Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow, India. Currently he is facility in charge at Sophisticated Analytical Instrument Facility (SAIF) division of CSIR-CDRI. He has completed his PhD from CSIR-CDRI Lucknow (Dr. R.M.L Avadh University Faizabad UP, India). He has to his credit 7 book chapters, one book and 145 papers in International journal of repute. His current area of research is applications of Mass Spectrometry (DART MS/Q-TOF LC-MS/4000 Q Trap LC-MS/ Orbitrap MSn) for qualitative and quantitative analysis of molecules for quality control and authentication/standardization of Indian medicinal plants/parts and their herbal formulations. He is also involved in identification of marker compounds using statistical software to check adulteration/substitution.Ms. Surabhi Tiwari completed her masters from the University of Allahabad India in Chemistry. She has worked in Pharmacognosy Division, NBRI, Lucknow, for analysis of herbals using instruments like- HPTLC and HPLC. Currently she is working as Senior Research Fellow in SAIF Division under supervision of Dr. Brijesh Kumar at CSIR-Central Drug research Institute Lucknow India. Her current research interest includes phytochemical analysis of medicinal plants.Vikas Bajpai completed his PhD from the Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), New Delhi, India and carried his research work under supervision of Dr. Brijesh Kumar at CSIR-Central Drug research Institute Lucknow. His research includes development and validation of LC-MS/MS methods for qualitative and quantitative analysis of small molecules of Indian medicinal plants.Dr. Bikarma Singh is working as Scientist in CSIR-Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine Jammu and is a recognized Assistant Professor in AcSIR, New Delhi. He graduated as an Honours and Gold Medalist in Botany from North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong in 2005, and completed Doctorate Degree in Botany from Gauhati University, Assam and Botanical Survey of India (Shillong), Meghalaya in 2012. He authored/co-authored 8 books and published 82 scientific research papers/experimental findings in peer reviewed national and international journals.