Spices are an important category of organic foods for the unique flavor they add to dishes and amazing health benefits.
Cinnamon is an especially potent spice, known for its immune boosting properties as well as its anti-clotting properties and blood sugar regulation benefits.
New research conducted at University of Arizona College of Pharmacy and the UA Cancer Center shows that cinnamon may be a potent preventive spice for colon cancer.
Georg Wondrak, Ph.D., associate professor, and Donna Zhang, Ph.D., professor, both of the UA College of Pharmacy Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, recently led a study showing that a compound called cinnamaldehyde protected mice against colon cancer. Cinnamaldehyde is a compound in cinnamon that gives the spice its distinctive flavor. The compound strengthened the animals’ cells to protect against carcinogens through detoxification and repair.
“This is a significant finding,” says Zhang. “Because colorectal cancer is aggressive and associated with poor prognoses, there is an urgent need to develop more effective strategies against this disease.”
“Given cinnamon’s important status as the third-most-consumed spice in the world,” Wondrak adds, “There’s relatively little research on its potential health benefits. If we can ascertain the positive effects of cinnamon, we would like to leverage this opportunity to potentially improve the health of people around the globe.”
The next step of research is to find whether cinnamon, not just cinnamaldehyde, prevents cancer with the same model. Because cinnamon is a common and safe food additive, a human study may happen very soon.
Wondrak concludes with the following questions: “Can cinnamon do it, now that we know pure cinnamaldehyde can? And can we use cinnamaldehyde or cinnamon as a weapon to go after other major diseases, such as inflammatory dysregulation and diabetes? These are big questions to which we might be able to provide encouraging answers using a very common spice.”
The study showing that cinnamon may be a potent preventive spice for colon cancer was published in the journal Cancer Prevention Research.
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REFERENCES:
1. “College Researchers Discover Molecular Component of Cinnamon Prevents Colorectal Cancer in Mice.” The University of Arizona College of Pharmacy. The University of Arizona, 8 June 2015. Web. 15 June 2015.
2. “Nrf2-Dependent Suppression of Azoxymethane/Dextran Sulfate Sodium–Induced Colon Carcinogenesis by the Cinnamon-Derived Dietary Factor Cinnamaldehyde.” Cancer Prevention Research. Cancer Prevention Research, 8 May 2015. Web. 15 June 2015.
