Jeff oughta stick to writing pop songs!
Posted on 03/07/2009 9:15:48 AM PST by decimon
ANN ARBOR, Mich.---Revered in India as "holy powder," the marigold-colored spice known as turmeric has been used for centuries to treat wounds, infections and other health problems. In recent years, research into the healing powers of turmeric's main ingredient, curcumin, has burgeoned, as its astonishing array of antioxidant, anti-cancer, antibiotic, antiviral and other properties has been revealed.
Yet little has been known about exactly how curcumin works inside the body.
Now, University of Michigan researchers led by Ayyalusamy Ramamoorthy have discovered that curcumin acts as a disciplinarian, inserting itself into cell membranes and making them more orderly, a move that improves cells' resistance to infection and malignancy.
"The membrane goes from being crazy and floppy to being more disciplined and ordered, so that information flow through it can be controlled," said Ramamoorthy, a professor of chemistry and biophysics. The findings were published online March 3 in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
The research project melds Ramamoorthy's past with his current scientific interests. As a child in India, he was given turmeric-laced milk to drink when he had a cold, and he breathed steam infused with turmeric to relieve congestion. Now as researcher he is fascinated with proteins that are associated with biological membranes, and he uses a technique called solid-state NMR spectroscopy to reveal atom-level details of these important molecules and the membranous milieu in which they operate.
"Probing high-resolution intermolecular interactions in the messy membrane environment has been a major challenge to commonly-used biophysical techniques," Ramamoorthy said. His research group recently developed the two-dimensional solid-state NMR technique that they used to probe curcumin-membrane communication in this study.
Scientists have speculated that curcumin does its health-promoting work by interacting directly with membrane proteins, but the U-M findings challenge that notion. Instead, the researchers found that curcumin regulates the action of membrane proteins indirectly, by changing the physical properties of the membrane.
Ramamoorthy's group now is collaborating with chemistry professor Masato Koreeda and U-M Life Sciences Institute researcher Jason Gestwicki to study a variety of curcumin derivatives, some of which have enhanced potency. "We want to see how these various derivatives interact with the membrane, to see if the interactions are the same as what we have observed in the current study," Ramamoorthy said. "Such a comparative study could lead to the development of potent compounds to treat infection and other diseases."
In a related line of research, Ramamoorthy's team is using the same methods to investigate the effects of curcumin on the formation of amyloids---clumps of fibrous protein believed to be involved in type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and many other maladies. In addition, the researchers are looking to see whether other natural products, such as polyphenols (compounds found in many plant foods that are known to have antioxidant properties) and capsaicin (a pain reliever derived from hot peppers), interact with membranes in the same way as curcumin.
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Along with Ramamoorthy, the paper's authors are undergraduates Jeffrey Barry and Michelle Fritz, post-doctoral fellow Jeffrey Brender, graduate student Pieter Smith and a visiting professor from South Korea, Dong-Kuk Lee.
This research was supported by funding from the National Institutes of Health.
For more information on Ramamoorthy, visit: http://www.ns.umich.edu/htdocs/public/experts/ExpDisplay.php?ExpID=1170
Journal of the American Chemical Society: http://pubs.acs.org/journal/jacsat
when life spans average 30 years - yes, they worked miracles.
“when life spans average 30 years - yes, they worked miracles.
“
Ok you ignore 5000 years of learning and trust to socialized medicine. Ignorance is bliss
There is a huge difference between a drug and how an industry is managed - you are not even comparing apples to apples.
“:There is a huge difference between a drug and how an industry is managed - you are not even comparing apples to apples.”
No you are the one advocating throwing away 5000 years of knowledge and only trusting to what has been ‘discovered’ recently.
I’m the one suggesting that much can be learned from those 5000 years and used in our medical system. The human body has fantastic healing capabilities. It would be better to use those capabilities and things God gave us than to insist on a brute force primitive approach just because you refuse to consider the old timers could have been on to something.
Behavin’ membranes are a must.
Uh, oh, soon to be made illegal by Big Daddy Gummint!
Jeff oughta stick to writing pop songs!
thanks, bfl
God also gave us the new stuff as well.
From the University of Michagan web site:
The lead author:
A. Ramamoorthy
Professor of Chemistry
Ph.D. - Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India
There is no harm in studying ancient remedies. The chemistry is staggering as so many separate chemicals which exist in the compound could be “the cause” of any benefit. Secondly, they rarely work out. Lastly, the “remedies” are usually witchcraft. Once again if all the ‘secret’ ‘ancient remedies’ worked why does their country of origin have a death rate like that of the middle ages.
Yes God did give us the new stuff. So why not use both? The only reason not to study old methods and use those that make sense is ego.
“Once again if all the ‘secret’ ‘ancient remedies’ worked why does their country of origin have a death rate like that of the middle ages.”
Did I say ignore modern methods? No I did not. I’d say the biggest single contributor to longer lives is antibiotics. Many of the compounds used previously do help with infections but as well as the antibiotics.
If you would like to be added or dropped from the Michigan ping list, please freepmail me.
You see, this is why my body is in such disorder--it has nothing to do with my cruddy diet of caffeine and cigarettes, it's because I don't like turmeric!
If you think so then invest in it and make a fortune.
Me, I consider it snake oil sales 101.
Free country - so be happy.
“If you think so then invest in it and make a fortune.”
I’m not interested in giving it all to the govt in taxes.
“Me, I consider it snake oil sales 101.”
Some of it is, some of it isn’t.
Thanks for the ping & link.
I am glad we can agree to disagree reasonably. Makes the discussions much better. Hope you have a great week.
Keep the faith.
Thanks for the info.
Bookmark for later.
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