The spice of life: cooking with herbs and spices not only livens up your meals, but may also help prevent disease

Powerful chemicals that may help prevent chronic diseases are not just in pharmacies, but they're also in your kitchen spice rack. Recent studies show that curcumin, which gives curry its yellow color, capsaicin in hot peppers, and chemicals in cinnamon, rosemary, garlic, pepper, and ginger may help the body ward off cancer, heart disease, and diabetes

"Spices have been used for thousands of years not only to enhance food but also to improve health. We are just now discovering the scientific proof of what our grandmothers knew: That spices and herbs can heal and help prevent disease," remarks Meena Katdare, PhD, head of the Carcinogenesis and Chemoprevention Laboratory and assistant professor of cell and developmental biology at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University. Katdare cites curcumin as a prime example: "Curcumin, the active chemical in the spice turmeric, has been shown to be a very strong immunomodulator, and has been used for the prevention of ailments for generations in Asian countries. It also acts as an antioxidant and as an antimicrobial."

"Turmeric is a basic ingredient in everyday cooking in India and other countries. But people also know it can control infection. If a child gets a cut or scrape, before we use an antibiotic we will go to the kitchen, pick up the turmeric and put some on the wound. It will immediately stop bleeding. Healing will be faster and it will reduce scar formation. When people have a sore throat, they take it in warm milk. We are now investigating its effects on cells in the laboratory," says Katdare, whose research was inspired by her maternal grandmother, who used medicinal spices and herbs in India.



Adding flavor and function
Spices and herbs not only add flavor and aroma to foods, but they also contain plant chemicals (phytochemicals) that have many beneficial effects, says Tieraona Low Dog, MD, education director of the Program in Integrative Medicine and clinical assistant professor at the University of Arizona College of Medicine. Culinary herbs can function as digestive aids (for example, fennel acts as a carminative to dispel gas), kill harmful bacteria in the GI tract (as nutmeg can), and even dampen pain (think clove oil for dental pain).
"All spices promote salivation, which is a key to priming of the digestive response," Dr. Low Dog told the Third Annual Conference on Nutrition and Health held in New York City in May, cosponsored by Columbia University's Rosenthal Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. "Spices and herbs were traditionally used as preservatives to keep food from spoiling. Many of these plants have antimicrobial and antifungal activity, and some have chemopreventive effects, mostly in the colon for colorectal cancer."

The spice rack as a medicine cabinet

Dr. Low Dog's list of "medicinal" spices and herbs used in cooking includes: Anise seed, used for licorice flavoring and anisette liquor, which acts as a carminative, has antifungal activity against Candida, works as an antihistamine (dampening mast cells and molecules called leukotrienes) and is used by Native Americans in the Southwest for allergies and asthma. Rosemary prepared as tea is another asthma remedy.

Basil has inflammatory and antibacterial properties, and has been used for wound-healing in topical creams and ointments. You can crush it and put it on a wound, Dr. Low Dog told the conference. Try a one percent solution of essential oil of basil as an antibacterial rinse for produce, she suggests.

Cayenne pepper (which contains capsaicin) makes the nose run and can clear stuffy sinuses. It's a traditional remedy in the Southwest for colds, says Dr. Low Dog. "If you get stopped up, you go have a very hot spicy meal to help clear your sinuses. Capsaicin applied topically and repeatedly over time desensitizes nerves and reduces pain. One out of eight people who do not respond to conventional treatments for neuropathic pain may be helped by capsaicin." A recent animal study showed that capsaicin may also have anticancer activity, promoting cell suicide (apoptosis) and shrinking pancreatic tumors.

Black pepper (called the "king of spices") has antibacterial properties and may reduce DNA damage seen in certain models of cancer. Nutmeg can act against the gastrointestinal bacteria E. coli and H. pylori, and a 2005 study found it had some antidepressant properties, Dr. Low Dog says.

Curry can fight cancer

Recent studies have shown that curcumin also induces cell suicide. It may help stop the spread of lung cancer and inhibit colon, oral, and throat cancers. Cornell's Katdare is among the researchers focusing on curcumin's use against breast cancer.

Her laboratory studies of breast tissue cell lines have shown that faster-growing tumor cells are more responsive to curcumin. "Within 24 hours curcumin induces cell suicide (apoptosis) in tumor cells. But what happens to the cells that are not killed off? We removed those cells, washed them, and allowed them to grow in regular medium for 15-18 days. To my surprise, the cells remained in a resting state for 15 days. Then they started growing again, but at a slower rate than before. This selective effect of curcumin to the mutant, faster growing cells is very exciting," she says. Katdare has begun new research under a grant from the NIH Clinical Nutrition Research Unit to further study curcumin's effects, this time on mammary tumors in mice. She is also working with the Strang Cancer Prevention Center at Cornell on a human model to prevent or treat ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS).