{"id":51848,"date":"2014-09-28T13:43:11","date_gmt":"2014-09-28T13:43:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=51848"},"modified":"2014-09-28T13:43:11","modified_gmt":"2014-09-28T13:43:11","slug":"curry-spice-helps-brain-self-heal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=51848","title":{"rendered":"Curry spice ‘helps brain self- heal’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A spice commonly found in curries may boost the brain’s ability to heal itself, according to a report in the journal Stem Cell Research and Therapy.<\/p>\n

The German study suggests a compound found in turmeric could encourage the growth of nerve cells thought to be part of the brain’s repair kit.<\/p>\n

Scientists say this work, based in rats, may pave the way for future drugs for strokes and Alzheimer’s disease.<\/p>\n

But they say more trials are needed to see whether this applies to humans.<\/p>\n

Researchers from the Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine in Julich, Germany, studied the effects of aromatic-turmerone – a compound found naturally in turmeric.<\/p>\n

Rats were injected with the compound and their brains were then scanned.<\/p>\n

Particular parts of the brain, known to be involved in nerve cell growth, were seen to be more active after the aromatic-turmerone infusion.<\/p>\n

Scientists say the compound may encourage a proliferation of brain cells.<\/p>\n

In a separate part of the trial, researchers bathed rodent neural stem cells (NSCs) in different concentrations of aromatic-tumerone extract.<\/p>\n

NSCs have the ability to transform into any type of brain cell and scientists suggest they could have a role in repair after damage or disease.<\/p>\n

Dr Maria Adele Rueger, who was part of the research team, said: “In humans and higher developed animals their abilities do not seem to be sufficient to repair the brain but in fish and smaller animals they seem to work well.”<\/p>\n

\"Picture<\/div>\n
Turmeric belongs to the same plant family as ginger<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

The research found the higher the concentration of aromatic-turmerone, the greater the growth of the NSCs.<\/p>\n

And the cells bathed in the turmeric compound seemed to specialise into certain types of brain cells more rapidly too.<\/p>\n

Dr Rueger added: “It is interesting that it might be possible to boost the effectiveness of the stem cells with aromatic-turmerone.<\/p>\n

“And it is possible this in turn can help boost repair in the brain.”<\/p>\n

She is now considering whether human trials may be feasible.<\/p>\n

‘Complex disease’<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dr Laura Phipps at the charity, Alzheimer’s Research UK, said: “It is not clear whether the results of this research would translate to people, or whether the ability to generate new brain cells in this way would benefit people with Alzheimer’s disease.<\/p>\n

“We’d need to see further studies to fully understand this compound’s effects in the context of a complex disease like Alzheimer’s, and until then people shouldn’t take this as a sign to stock up on supplies of turmeric for the spice rack.”<\/p>\n

Aromatic-turmerone is the lesser-studied of two major compounds in turmeric that may have an effect on the human body.<\/p>\n

Previous studies suggest the other compound, curcumin, could reduce inflammation in the body and have anti-cancer benefits.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u00a0Source: BBC<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A spice commonly found in curries may boost the brain’s ability to heal itself, according to a report in the journal Stem Cell Research and Therapy. The German study suggests a compound found in turmeric could encourage the growth of nerve cells thought to be part of the brain’s repair kit. Scientists say this work, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":51849,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[15],"class_list":["post-51848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-chinese"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=51848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51848\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/51849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}