Ayurveda

TrikatuZingiber officinale + Piper nigrum + Piper longum

Q: What is in Trikatu?

Three spices: dried ginger, black pepper and long pepper. The name means three pungents, and in Ayurveda they are grouped together as Trikatu.

Q: Has Trikatu been tested for digestion in people?

We could not find a completed human trial of the formula for a gut outcome. The human studies that exist measured how piperine changes the absorption of other substances, using piperine alone.

Q: How big is the piperine effect on absorption?

In volunteers, 20 mg of piperine raised curcumin bioavailability by 2,000% in one study, and raised exposure to propranolol and theophylline in a crossover study of 6 volunteers per group. These findings are for piperine, not for the three-spice powder.

Q: Why was a trial of ajwain, ginger and black pepper included?

Because it is the closest published gut trial: 106 people with functional bloating improved more on that three-spice capsule than on placebo or dimethicone. It is a different formula from Trikatu and lacks long pepper.

Q: Does Trikatu interact with medicines?

Piperine raised blood exposure to propranolol and theophylline in a small study, so interaction with drugs absorbed or metabolized in that way is documented for piperine. Whether a Trikatu dose delivers enough piperine to do the same has not been reported.

The Ayurvedic three-spice formula of ginger, black pepper and long pepper. Piperine raised curcumin absorption 2,000% in volunteers; gut trials of it are lacking.

Botanical name: Zingiber officinale + Piper nigrum + Piper longum
Part used: dried ginger rhizome, black pepper fruit and long pepper fruit
Also called: Sanskrit Trikatu (Trikatuka), Tryushana: the three pungents; Hindi Trikatu; Three pungents, Ginger, black pepper and long pepper formula
Used in: Ayurveda
Taken for: Indigestion, Appetite, Bloating, Gas
Sold as: powder, tablets, capsules, decoction

Trikatu, the plant and the part used

Trikatu is a classical Ayurvedic combination of three hot spices: dried ginger (shunthi, Zingiber officinale), black pepper (maricha, Piper nigrum) and long pepper (pippali, Piper longum). The name means “three pungents” (tri, three; katu, pungent). It is not a single plant, so this page treats the formula as an entry in its own right and refers to each spice’s own page for the individual evidence.

Classically it is ground to a powder (a churna) and also appears as a component of many compound formulas, tablets and capsules. A 1992 review describes it as an Ayurvedic preparation prescribed routinely for a variety of diseases as part of a multidrug prescription, and a 2016 review on bioavailability in Ayurveda describes it as a combination of three acrid drugs used to help other medicines work. Today it is also sold as a standalone supplement and alongside piperine, the main alkaloid of the two peppers.

Traditional uses, in their own terms

Ayurveda (about Ayurveda)

Each spice has its own record in Ayurvedic college monographs. Dried ginger is pungent in taste (rasa), heavy, dry and sharp in its qualities (guna), heating in potency (virya) and sweet in its after-digestion effect (vipaka); the tradition says it calms vata and kapha and lists bloating, loose stools, weak digestive fire (agnimandya) and constipation among its uses. Black pepper is pungent, light and sharp, heating and pungent after digestion, listed as a digestive stimulant (dipana) and worm-killer (krimighna) for dysentery with straining, indigestion and colic. Long pepper is pungent, light, unctuous and sharp, heating, sweet after digestion, and listed for abdominal lumps, piles, colic and rheumatic disease.

The three are grouped together in the Sushruta and Vagbhata classifications as Trikatu, and all three appear in Charaka’s group of digestion-stimulating (dipaniya) drugs. A modern review notes that the tradition says Trikatu calms vata and kapha while raising pitta. Reviews of Ayurvedic practice describe the formula as a bioavailability enhancer, meaning something added to other medicines to raise how much of them is absorbed, a role that modern work has tested in the laboratory and in a few small human studies of piperine.

Compounds, and what the laboratory says about them

The heat of the two peppers comes largely from piperine, an alkaloid, and long pepper also contains piperlongumine and other amides, according to an Ayurvedic college monograph; ginger’s heat comes from gingerols and shogaols. Piperine is the compound responsible for most published work on the formula’s absorption-boosting effect. In a 1985 laboratory study it was shown to be a potent inhibitor of drug metabolism, and a 1998 study describes it as an inhibitor of glucuronidation, the liver and gut-wall process that deactivates curcumin and some other compounds. These are mechanistic findings and apply to piperine, which the formula supplies in unknown amounts.

Trials in people, with the numbers

We could not find a published human trial of Trikatu for a gut outcome. A PubMed search for Trikatu returns formulation reviews, laboratory studies and a registered trial protocol for dyslipidemia, but no completed gut trial. The human work that exists concerns piperine and absorption, and it used pure piperine, not the three-spice formula.

In a 1991 crossover study, six volunteers per group took a single dose of propranolol 40 mg or theophylline 150 mg alone or with piperine 20 mg daily for 7 days. With piperine, propranolol reached its peak earlier and showed higher peak concentration (Cmax) and exposure (AUC), and theophylline showed higher Cmax, longer half-life and higher AUC. In a 1998 study, 2 g of curcumin alone gave serum levels that were undetectable or very low in volunteers; adding 20 mg of piperine raised bioavailability by 2,000%, and in rats by 154%, with no adverse effects reported.

The closest gut trial we found tested ajwain, ginger and black pepper together, not Trikatu: a 2019 trial in 106 people with functional bloating gave 500 mg three times a day for 2 weeks and found less bloating than with placebo or dimethicone (P less than 0.001). It includes two of the three Trikatu spices and none of long pepper.

Study	Dose	What it found
Crossover study in healthy volunteers, 6 per group: piperine with propranolol or theophylline PMID 1815977	Propranolol 40 mg or theophylline 150 mg alone or with piperine 20 mg daily for 7 days	Higher Cmax and AUC with piperine for both drugs; earlier peak for propranolol; longer half-life for theophylline
Rats and healthy volunteers: piperine with curcumin PMID 9619120	Curcumin 2 g with or without piperine 20 mg (human)	Human bioavailability of curcumin up 2,000%; rat bioavailability up 154%; no adverse effects reported
Laboratory study of piperine and drug metabolism PMID 3917507	Not applicable (biochemical and animal work)	Piperine shown to be a potent inhibitor of drug metabolism
Randomized double-blind trial, 106 people with functional bloating: ajwain, ginger and black pepper capsule (a related spice formula, not Trikatu) PMID 31201146	500 mg three times daily for 2 weeks	Less bloating frequency and severity than placebo or dimethicone (P < 0.001)

The doses on record

No gut-trial dose exists for Trikatu. The piperine studies used 20 mg of piperine, and the sources we read do not state how much piperine a gram of Trikatu supplies. Ayurvedic college monographs give traditional powder amounts for the single spices of 2 to 4 g for dried ginger, 0.5 to 1 g for black pepper and 1 to 2 g for long pepper. The sources we read do not give the proportions of the three spices.

None of this is a dose recommendation. It is what the literature used, set down so a label can be compared with it; a pharmacist or clinician decides what applies to you.

The safety record

We found no safety data for Trikatu as a formula in a gut trial. The tradition says it raises pitta, meaning it is described as heating, and all three spices are pungent. Compound Ayurvedic medicines are a documented source of metal contamination: a 2004 study found lead, mercury or arsenic in 14 of 70 items from Boston-area stores, and a 2008 study found them in 20.7% of 193 preparations ordered online, with 40.6% of mineral-and-metal (rasa shastra) preparations affected against 17.1% of other products. Those findings concern some Ayurvedic medicines, not every Trikatu or spice product. We found no pregnancy or breastfeeding data for the formula in the sources we read.

Medicines it can interact with

The main documented interaction is piperine’s effect on drug absorption. In a small crossover study (6 volunteers per group), piperine 20 mg daily for 7 days raised exposure to propranolol, a beta-blocker, and theophylline, an asthma medicine. A study in tuberculosis patients (the title says piperine and rifampicin blood levels) and the curcumin result add to the picture. The proposed mechanism is inhibition of drug-metabolizing enzymes and of glucuronidation. How much piperine a given Trikatu dose delivers has not been reported.

The interaction rules the quiz applies to trikatu

These are the medicines the quiz pairs with a caution or an exclusion for this herb, taken from published interaction references:

nifedipine (not combined)
aliskiren (flagged to check)
alprazolam (flagged to check)
aminophylline (flagged to check)
amlodipine (flagged to check)
antiplatelets (flagged to check)
apixaban (flagged to check)
aripiprazole (flagged to check)
aspirin-prescription (flagged to check)
atorvastatin (flagged to check)
blood thinner (flagged to check)
blood thinners (flagged to check)
budesonide (flagged to check)
buspirone (flagged to check)
canagliflozin (flagged to check)
carbamazepine (flagged to check)
celecoxib (flagged to check)
clopidogrel (flagged to check)
and 83 more

Where trikatu turns up in the catalog

Trikatu appears on the labels below, alone or inside a blend; each product page gives the printed amount, the evidence for that product and the review picture.

36 more entries list it; the full catalog is grouped by the job each product does.

From the herb to a product that fits you

The quiz weighs your symptoms and medicines against every product researched here, trikatu products included, and shows its working.

Take the quiz

What people want to know

What is in Trikatu?