Abstract:Objective: Heterocyclic aromatic amines, represented by PhIP were carcinogens that could be often formed in meat products. Black peppers, a commonly used spice in meat processing industry, which was proved to affect the formation of PhIP, with significant differences in its effect. Therefore, it is important to explicit the key compounds that affect the inhibitory of PhIP formation in the black pepper. Method: In this study, the extract solvents for black pepper extraction were decided by comparing the PhIP inhibitory efficiency of different extracts, before preparing a group of certain extract. Then the compound peaks in HPLC spectrograms represented the key compounds that affect the PhIP inhibitory efficiency were screened and identified by principle component analysis (PCA). Results: Compared to other extracts, the ethanol extracts in black pepper have the highest PhIP inhibitory activities. And the top PhIP inhibitory efficiency was achieved when the extract extracted by 100% ethanol under ultrasonic for 60 min were added. Two key peaks in HPLC spectrograms were screened using PCA, modeling the peak area from 24 ethanol extract prepared by different extract conditions and the PhIP inhibitory efficiencies. The key compounds peaks were finally identified as eugenol and quercetin by using HPLC-TOF-MS. Conclusion: The ethanol extracts from black pepper were a kind of good PhIP inhibitor of meat products, in which the core compounds that mostly affect the inhibitory activities were eugenol and quercetin. The results obtained in this research could offer fundamental basis for the proper usage of the black pepper which were proved to be a nature PhIP inhibitor.