Spicing up!

Amongst the sensory organs, the taste buds are the least thought about! But give them bland food and they will protest! No cooking is palatable without spices. Apart from pepping up the food, they have numerous medicinal properties that aid in keeping fit.

Vedic literature contains description of many medicinal properties of spices. It is said that the secret of good health of the labourers who worked at constructing the pyramids lay in a staple diet of onions and garlic that are supposed to have provided protection against a variety of diseases. Some of the commonly used spices have medicinal properties that we are not aware of!

1. Digestive Stimulant Action: Ingredients like ginger, mint, ajwain, garlic are used for pharmaceutical preparations. Ginger and mint have shown to stimulate pancreatic digestive enzymes that are lipase, amylase, chymotrypsin, which aid in digestion. Bile acids are necessary for digestion of fats and its absorption. The coloring principle of turmeric called curcumin, mustard, onion, fenugreek, mustard are some of the ingredients besides ginger that stimulate bile acid production by the liver.
2. Antioxidant property: Reactive oxygen radicals have known to be one of the root causes in genetic damage. They act at the cellular level and can cause damage to the normal action of the cells. Curcumin, the yellow ingredients of turmeric, cloves and red pepper have demonstrated beneficial anti-oxidant properties. Garlic and asafoetida too have proved to be favorable.
3. Anticarcinogenic properties: Animal studies involving experimental induction of tumors have shown its reduction with the use of turmeric garlic and asafoetida.
4. Anti-arthritic property: Cloves, turmeric are some potential spices useful in lowering the incidence of arthritis. They have also known to delay the onset of arthritis.
5. Anti-bacterial property: Turmeric is well known for its anti-microbial property. People have been using turmeric to treat cuts and wounds even today. Asafoetida is another well known anti-bacterial agent. It also aids in counter-acting intestinal flatulence. The sulfur containing compounds of garlic and onion too inhibit growth of pathogenic fungi and bacteria. The volatile component of certain spices like nutmeg, saffron, cumin too could be useful as anti-microbial agents.

The many promising beneficial properties of naturally occurring spices are making them a hot favorite for future research. Probably, if we are able to decipher the ancient Vedic literature, we could find many answers.

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