Piperine
An alkaloid from Piper nigrum, isolated in 1819 by Orsted.
Piperine is the principal alkaloid of Piper nigrum, black pepper, a flowering vine of the family Piperaceae cultivated across the Malabar coast of India. It was first isolated by the Danish chemist Hans Christian Orsted in 1819. Chemical formula C17H19NO3, molar mass 285.34 g/mol; presentation as pale yellow needle crystals, slightly pungent odour, poorly water-soluble but soluble in ethanol and dichloromethane. In LUCID, piperine is present as BioPerine, a standardised extract from mature black pepper fruit manufactured by Sabinsa Corporation (India), assaying at 95 percent piperine minimum by HPLC. BioPerine holds a US patent (US 5,536,506) covering its process and application for enhancing the bioavailability of co-administered nutrients. It is Kosher, Halal, and self-affirmed GRAS. Each incoming lot at LIMINATE is re-verified at Eurofins Antwerp for marker assay and contaminant panels before release.
We elected BioPerine over generic piperine for the reason we have elected every branded active in LUCID: the tested article. The published academic record on piperine as a bioavailability adjunct has been generated overwhelmingly with the Sabinsa material (Shoba et al., 1998, Planta Medica; Majeed and Prakash, 2000, NutriScience Publishers). To include a generic piperine would be to inherit a body of work whose material identity we cannot verify. The 5 mg calibration is the specific dose used in the referenced peer-reviewed literature and the industry-standard mass across formulations that reference BioPerine by name. We include it at the label as a compositional element, not as a marketed feature. It occupies the bioavailability band alone, the tenth and smallest active by mass in the LUCID composition.
BioPerine is manufactured by Sabinsa Corporation at its GMP-certified facility in India, from mature black pepper fruit sourced along the Malabar coast. Certifications include ISO 22000, Kosher, Halal, and Self-Affirmed GRAS. Each shipment carries the Sabinsa Certificate of Analysis and is cross-verified at Eurofins Antwerp before release to LUCID encapsulation.
Piperine sits tenth and last in the composition table, alone in the bioavailability band. It closes the composition at 5 mg, the smallest declared mass among the ten actives.
