e-ISSN:2322-0066 45 RRJOB| Volume 4 | Issue 2 | June, 2016 Research & Reviews: Research Journal of Biology INTRODUCTION Piperaceae family contains a wide variety of species; they group together into fourteen genuses and between 1950 and 2000 species approximately [1,2] . The genus Piper includes a numberless of bushes, herbals and ivies that can be found in hushed and humid places all around the globe; for instance, jungles and rain forests [3] of tropical regions of both hemispheres [4] , the most known the genus Piperaceae family species that distribute in tropical and subtropical regions of the world are Piper and Peperomia, which include 600 and 700 species approximately. Although the largest number of Piper species are found in America (around 700 species) and Southern Asia (about 300 species), a smaller number of species are found in the South Pacifc (about A Phytochemical and Ethnopharmacological Review of the Genus Piper: as a Potent Bio-Insecticide Vianey R Torres-Pelayo 1 *, Ma. Socorro Fernandez 2 , Oscar Carmona-Hernandez 1 , Jorge Molina-Torres 3 and J. Armando Lozada-Garcia 1 1 Laboratorio de Ecología Evolutiva–Productos Naturales de la Facultad de Biología, Universidad Veracruzana, Xalapa, Veracruz, México 2 Labortorio de Toxicología de la Facultad de Biología, Universidad Veracruzana, Xalapa, Veracruz, México 3 Laboratorio de Fitobioquímica, CINVESTAV, Irapuato, Guanajuato, México Review ABSTRACT The genus Piper is of great signifcance to a commercial and economic level into the favoring, pharmaceutical and insecticide industry, and great traditional use. Some species of this genus have been well explored. The aim of this review is to provide comprehensive information in the felds of Botany, traditional uses, phytochemistry and pharmacology of the genus Piper in order to explore its therapeutic potential and future research opportunities as a possible bio-insecticide in Mexico. All the available information material about the genus Piper was collected via electronic research: Pubmed, SciFinder, Scirus and Google Scholar; also a library research for articles published in peer- reviewed journals, thesis and books. Several species of the genus Piper were found in Mexico and they are used ethnomedically, such as Piper auritum, Piper aduncum L. H.B. & K.; Piper nudum C. DC., Piper hispidum Swartz, Piper sanctum Schiltdl. ex Miq., Piper umbellatum L., Piper psilorhachis C. DC., Piper diandrum C. DC., and Piper amalago L. Phytochemical research on Piper genus has found alkaloids, pterocarpans, sterols, favonoids, triterpenoid, saponines, phenylethylamines and amines. The genus Piper have showed a wide spectrum of pharmacological activities in vitro and in vivo, and insecticide activities. However, there is a need to research for individual secondary metabolites responsible of these actions, and to study the way they act, as well as physiological pathways in detail. Piper has emerged as a good source of traditional medicine and it exhibits a wide spectrum of pharmacological activities and among other biological properties, who could be a possible bio-insecticide in Mexico. Received date: 29/03/2016 Accepted date: 20/06/2016 Published date: 24/06/2016 *For Correspondence ETorres-Pelayo Vianey del Rocio, Facultad de Biologia, Universidad Veracruzana, Zona Univer- sitaria, Circuito Gonzalo Aguirre Beltran s/n, C.P. 91000, Veracruz, Mexico. Tel: 01 (22) 8 42 17 00; Fax: 8 42 17 48 E-mail: torrespvr19@gmail.com Keywords: Biological activity, Ethnomedicinal, Ethnopharmacology, Piperaceae, Phytochemical constituents.