turmeric - a curry spice for mold illness?

[Guest guest]

Hello,

Is anyone using turmeric (the main ingredient in curries, a common

food in South Asia) to help fight mold illness? Turmeric and cucumin

(one of its active ingredients) are the subject of a lot of research

these days that may be relevant to mold illness on various levels.

There are hundreds of hits, not just these..

Free Radic Biol Med. 2007 Dec 4

Curcumin treatment alleviates the effects of glutathione depletion

in vitro and in vivo: Therapeutic implications for Parkinson's disease

explained via in silico studies.

Jagatha B, Mythri RB, Vali S, Bharath MM.

Department of Neurochemistry, National Institute of Mental Health

and Neurosciences, 2900, Hosur Road Bangalore 560029, Karnataka,

India.

Oxidative stress has been implicated in the degeneration of

dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra (SN) of Parkinson's

disease (PD) patients. An important biochemical feature of

presymptomatic PD is a significant depletion of the thiol antioxidant

glutathione (GSH) in these neurons resulting in oxidative stress,

mitochondrial dysfunction, and ultimately cell death. We have earlier

demonstrated that curcumin, a natural polyphenol obtained from

turmeric, protects against peroxynitrite-mediated mitochondrial

dysfunction both in vitro and in vivo. Here we report that treatment

of dopaminergic neuronal cells and mice with curcumin restores

depletion of GSH levels, protects against protein oxidation, and

preserves mitochondrial complex I activity which normally is impaired

due to GSH loss. Using systems biology and dynamic modeling we have

explained the mechanism of curcumin action in a model of mitochondrial

dysfunction linked to GSH metabolism that corroborates the major

findings of our experimental work. These data suggest that curcumin

has potential therapeutic values for neurodegenerative diseases

involving GSH depletion-mediated oxidative stress.

PMID: 18166164 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Food Chem Toxicol. 2007 Oct 30 [Epub ahead of print]

Related Articles, Links

Click here to read

Protective capacities of certain spices against

peroxynitrite-mediated biomolecular damage.

Ho SC, Tsai TH, Tsai PJ, Lin CC.

Department of Food Science, Yuanpei University, No. 306, Yuanpei

Street, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan, ROC.

Peroxynitrite, a potent cytotoxic agent, can damage a variety of

biomolecules such as proteins, lipids, and DNA, and is considered as

one of the major pathological causes of several diseases. Therefore,

it would appear likely that interception of peroxynitrite by certain

dietary compounds may represent one mechanism by which such foods may

exert their beneficial action in vivo. A number of researchers have

speculated that certain spices, rich in phenolics, may, conceivably,

act as potential protectors against the actions of peroxynitrite.

Eight culinary spices including cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, cumin,

nutmeg, paprika, rosemary and turmeric were selected for study

purposes. Further, the protective effects of methanol extracts of such

spices against peroxynitrite-mediated damage to proteins, lipids and

DNA were evaluated as determined by these extracts' ability to

attenuate the formation of, respectively, nitrotyrosine in albumin,

thiobarbiturate acid-reactive substances (TBARS) in liposome and

strand breakages for plasmid DNA. All of the tested spices exerted

some level of protective ability against peroxynitrite-mediated

biomolecular damage. Amongst them, cloves deserve special attention

due to their outstanding protective abilities against two of three

forms of peroxynitrite-mediated biomolecular damage. Additionally, the

phenolic content of certain spices appears to correlate well with such

spices' protective effect against peroxynitrite-mediated tyrosine

nitration and lipid peroxidation. Such an observation indicates that

phenolics present in the spices contributed to such spice-elicited

protection against peroxynitrite toxicity.

PMID: 18063286 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Front Biosci. 2008 Jan 1;13:2191-202.

Related Articles, Links

Click here to read

Cell cycle control as a basis for cancer chemoprevention through

dietary agents.

Meeran SM, Katiyar SK.

Department of Dermatology, University of Alabama at Birmingham,

Birmingham, AL 35294, USA.

The development of cancer is associated with disorders in the

regulation of the cell cycle. The purpose of this review is to briefly

summarize the known sequence of events that regulate cell cycle

progression with an emphasis on the checkpoints and the mechanisms

cell employ to insure DNA stability in the face of genotoxic stress.

Key transitions in the cell cycle are regulated by the activities of

various protein kinase complexes composed of cyclin and

cyclin-dependent kinases (CDK) molecules. The cyclins are CDK binding

partners which are required for kinase activity and their protein

levels are intimately linked to the cell cycle stage. CDK activity can

be regulated by other mechanisms, such as phosphorylation events, that

may contribute to deregulation of cell cycle and the development of

cancer. While fruits and vegetables are recommended for prevention of

cancer, their active ingredients and mechanisms of action are less

well understood. Here, we briefly present evidence that dietary agents

identified from fruits and vegetables can act to modulate the effects

of deregulated cell cycle checkpoints, and that this may contribute to

the prevention of cancer. The agents include apigenin (celery,

parsley), curcumin (turmeric), (-)-epigallocatechin-3-gallate (green

tea), resveratrol (red grape, peanuts and berries), genistein

(soybean), and silymarin (milk thistle). The teachings of Hippocrates

are still true " let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food " .

Publication Types:

* Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

* Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

* Review

PMID: 17981702 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

23: J Cell Mol Med.