Botanical species · safety record

Aframomum melegueta

The EFSA Compendium of Botanicals holds 19 constituent measurements and 6 adverse-effect records for Aframomum melegueta. This page reports what those source records contain and how to reach them. It carries no effect estimate, no dose and no recommendation.

Accepted name in source: Aframomum melegueta K.Schum.

19Constituent measurements

6Safety records

11Cited sources

82Licensed products (Canada)

Also recorded as

Amomum melegueta Rosc.

Synonyms are carried from the source compendium. A species may be traded and studied under more than one name, which is exactly how a safety record gets lost.

Regulatory presence

Health Canada's Licensed Natural Health Products Database holds 82 licensed products naming Aframomum melegueta as a medicinal ingredient, matched on the exact Latin binomial. A licence records that a product met the regulator's requirements for sale in Canada. It is not evidence that the product works.

Extract types on licence

Source material stated

Fruit
Graine
New material
Seed
Seed(s)
Whole plant

What the records describe

Constituents measured

Plant parts

Preparations

Effect types

Target tissues

Recorded constituents

What analytical work has found in this species, at which plant part and preparation. A measured constituent is a fact about material, not about effect.

Substance	Plant part	Preparation	Concentration	Analytical method	Source
1,8-cineole	Seed	Essential oil	—	—	Resolve DOI
1,8-cineole	Live plants	Essential oil	≥ 47 Percent	GC-MS	Resolve DOI
1,8-cineole	Live plants	Essential oil	≤ 86 Percent	GC-MS	Resolve DOI
6-gingerol	Seed	Solvent extraction	—	High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC)/Liquid Chromatography (LC)	Resolve DOI
6-gingerol	Seed	Solvent extraction	15.2 Percent	High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC)/Liquid Chromatography (LC)	Resolve DOI
6-gingerol	Fruit unspecified	Solvent extraction	—	Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR)	Resolve DOI
Alpha-phellandrene	Live plants	Essential oil	≥ 0.5 Percent	GC-MS	Resolve DOI
Alpha-phellandrene	Live plants	Essential oil	≤ 1.5 Percent	GC-MS	Resolve DOI
Angustifoline	Seed	Solvent extraction	—	GC-MS	Resolve DOI
Indicine	Seed	Solvent extraction	—	GC-MS	Resolve DOI
Lupanine	Seed	Solvent extraction	—	GC-MS	Resolve DOI
Myrcene	Seed	Essential oil	—	—	Resolve DOI
Myristicin	Seed	Solvent extraction	—	GC-MS	Resolve DOI
Safrole	Seed	Solvent extraction	—	GC-MS	Resolve DOI
Senkirkine	Seed	Solvent extraction	—	GC-MS	Resolve DOI
Shogaols	Seed	Solvent extraction	1.7 Percent	High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC)/Liquid Chromatography (LC)	Resolve DOI
Shogaols	Fruit unspecified	Solvent extraction	—	Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR)	Resolve DOI
Arctigenin	Roots and other underground parts	Solvent extraction	4.5 Milligram	High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC)/Liquid Chromatography (LC)	No resolvable identifier
Carboline alkaloids	Leaves	Solvent extraction	—	Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR)	No resolvable identifier

Recorded adverse effects

Adverse effects reported in the source literature, most often in animal or laboratory models at a stated preparation and dose.

Effect	Target tissue	Plant part	Preparation	Test organism	Test type	Source
Digestive	Digestive	—	—	—	In vitro	Resolve DOI
Digestive	Digestive	—	—	—	In vitro	Resolve DOI
Hepatotoxicity	Liver	Seed	Solvent extraction	Rat (as animal)	Short-term toxicity	Resolve DOI
Musclo-skeletal	Muscle, skeletal	Seed	Solvent extraction	Human (as organism)	Short-term toxicity	Resolve DOI
Other toxicities	—	Seed	—	Human (as organism)	Acute toxicity	Resolve DOI
Reproductive	Vagina	Live plants	—	Rat (as animal)	Short-term toxicity	No resolvable identifier

Cited sources

The literature the compendium cites for this species. Metatron Health has no relationship with these authors or journals and earns nothing from citing them.

Igwe, SA., Emeruwa, IC., Modie, JA. Ocular toxicity of Afromomum melegueta (alligator pepper) on healthy Igbos of Nigeria . Journal of ethnopharmacology, 1999, vol. 65, no. 3, p. 203-206. DOI
Ilic, Nebojsa., Schmidt, Barbara M., Poulev, Alexander., Raskin, Ilya. Toxicological evaluation of Grains of Paradise (Aframomum melegueta) Roscoe K. Schum. . Journal of ethnopharmacology, 2010, vol. 127, no. 2, p. 352-356. DOI
Inegbenebor, U., Ebomoyi, M I., Onyia, K A., Amadi, K., Aigbiremolen, A E. Effect of alligator pepper (Zingiberaceae aframomum melegueta) on first trimester pregnancy in Sprague Dawley rats. . Nigerian journal of physiological sciences : official publication of the physiological society of nigeria, 2009, vol. 24, no. 2, p. 161-4.
Sugita, Jun., Yoneshiro, Takeshi., Hatano, Takuya., Aita, Sayuri., Ikemoto, Takeshi., Uchiwa, Hideyo., Iwanaga, Toshihiko., Kameya, Toshimitsu., Kawai, Yuko., Saito, Masayuki. Grains of paradise (Aframomum melegueta) extract activates brown adipose tissue and increases whole-body energy expenditure in men . British journal of nutrition, 2013, vol. 110, no. 4, p. 733-738. DOI
Ameh, Sunday J., Ibekwe, Nneka N., Ebeshi, Benjamin U. Essential Oils in Ginger, Hops, Cloves, and Pepper Flavored Beverages-A Review . Journal of dietary supplements, 2015, vol. 12, no. 3, p. 241-260. DOI
Adefegha, Stephen A., Oboh, Ganiyu., Okeke, Bathlomew M., Oyeleye, Sunday I. Comparative Effects of Alkaloid Extracts from Aframomum melegueta (Alligator Pepper) and Aframomum danielli (Bastered Melegueta) on Enzymes Relevant to Erectile Dysfunction . Journal of dietary supplements, 2017, vol. 14, no. 5, p. 542-552. DOI
Martin, M. A. Couppe de K., Joseph, H., Bercion, S., Menut, C. Chemical composition of essential oils from aerial parts of Aframomum exscapum (Sims) Hepper collected in Guadeloupe, French West Indies . Flavour and fragrance journal, 2006, vol. 21, no. 6, p. 902-905. DOI
Fernandez, X., Pintaric, C., Lizzani-Cuvelier, L., Loiseau, AM., Morello, A., Pellerin, P. Chemical composition of absolute and supercritical carbon dioxide extract of Aframomum melegueta . Flavour and fragrance journal, 2006, vol. 21, no. 1, p. 162-165. DOI
Dibwe, Dya Fita., Awale, Suresh., Morita, Hiroyuki., Tezuka, Yasuhiro. Anti-austeritic Constituents of the Congolese Medicinal Plant Aframomum melegueta . Natural product communications, 2015, vol. 10, no. 6, p. 997-999.
Mohammeda, Aminu., Gbonjubola, Victoria Awolola., Koorbanally, Neil Anthony., Islam, Shahidul. Inhibition of key enzymes linked to type 2 diabetes by compounds isolated from Aframomum melegueta fruit . Pharmaceutical biology, 2017, vol. 55, no. 1, p. 1010-1016. DOI
Okwu, Donatus Ebere., Njoku, Eunice Ego. Monoterpene indole alkaloid from Aframomum melegueta.. International journal of pharmtech research, 2010, vol. 2, no. 1, p. 910-913.

Boundary

A constituent measurement is a fact about material at a stated preparation, not a statement about what that material does in a person. An adverse-effect or genotoxicity record is an observation reported in a source, most often in an animal or laboratory model. Neither is a Metatron Health conclusion about causality, human risk or benefit, and the absence of a record is not proof that a preparation is safe. Nothing here is diagnosis, prescribing or individual medical care.

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