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Federico De Romanis, "Comparative Perspectives on the Pepper Trade." ...compares quantitative data and other accounts of the pepper trade in Roman and Early Modern times and finds many broad similarities. Through his reading of both Roman and Early Modern European sources, De Romanis establishes that the Romans must have used both large and small ships carrying a very high proportion of pepper in their cargoes on the voyage from India. On the basis of recent readings of the Muziris papyrus, he argues that the Hermapollon, a large Roman ship, carried about 620 tons of pepper. De Romanis also considers the...

Abstract -- Cinnamon (Cinnamomum zeylanicum, and Cinnamon cassia), the eternal tree of tropical medicine, belongs to the Lauraceae family. Cinnamon is one of the most important spices used daily by people all over the world. Cinnamon primarily contains vital oils and other derivatives, such as cinnamaldehyde, cinnamic acid, and cinnamate. In addition to being an antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antidiabetic, antimicrobial, anticancer, lipid-lowering, and cardiovascular-disease-lowering compound, cinnamon has also been reported to have activities against neurological disorders, such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases. This review illustrates the pharmacological prospective of cinnamon and its use in daily life.

A new study showed that a teaspoon a day of cinnamon might help reduce a person’s diabetes risk. So, how much of it does a person need to eat? Teaspoon a day of common spice may reduce diabetes risk (WKRC, CNN Newsource, CBS Newspath) The study was conducted in those with prediabetes, which means a person’s blood sugar levels are higher than normal, but not yet high enough to be considered type two diabetes. It’s also a time when increasing a person’s activity can really make a difference, something that Samantha Goldfeder knows about. "Just the consistency of coming kind...

Photo courtesy of FDA Doctors need to be on the lookout for lead poisoning in children as the latest tally of kids exposed to the toxin after consuming pouches of cinnamon-flavored apple puree climbed to 22, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday. In a health advisory the agency sent out to healthcare providers, officials said any provider who has such a patient should report it to local health authorities. The agency added that it is working with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and state and local partners to investigate the link. But there are already...

In an innovative endeavor to create a sensory bridge to the ancient past, a team of researchers led by Barbara Huber of the MPI of Geoanthropology has recreated one of the scents used in the mummification of an important Egyptian woman more than 3,500 years ago...The team's research centered on the mummification substances used to embalm the noble lady Senetnay in the 18th dynasty, circa 1450 BCE. The researchers utilized advanced analytical techniques—including gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, high-temperature gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry—to reconstruct the substances that helped to preserve and scent Senetnay for eternity. Their research has...

Archaeologists have found remnants of eight spices on a sandstone slab from an archaeological site in Vietnam, showing the early adoption of ingredients and techniques from South Asia.Unearthed in an ancient village in southern Vietnam, the cookware—roughly the size and shape of an anvil—was likely used to grind the spice and other ingredients familiar in today’s curries...An analysis of 717 grains of starch recovered from the tools revealed the presence of eight different spices: turmeric, ginger, galangal, sand ginger, fingerroot, clove, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Many of the grains also showed signs of deformation, indicating that they had been damaged during...

In this video, we look at the mysterious historical origins of one of the world's favorite spices: Cinnamon.

On February 27,* 1623, the Dutch East India Company beheaded twenty who had been waterboarded into confessing to a terrorist plot. As in modern times, this scenario originated with resource competition in the Muslim world … in this case, competition for spice, in Indonesia. European colonialism had pitted the Dutch East India Company against its British counterpart on the archipelago, both scrabbling after the lucrative trade in cloves and pepper, with garnishes of nutmeg, cinnamon, mace, and ginger. The two rival powers had, as we lay our story, recently come to a tense truce, dividing the commerce between them —...

The cinnamon roll craze continues in Fresno. Long lines formed yet again on Saturday after Country Fair Cinnamon Rolls set up shop at the fairgrounds in the morning. It was a chance for people to take home hot rolls to enjoy. The company's Facebook page kept people updated while they were in line, even noting a 4-hour wait at one point. They had to cut off sales at five but plan to hold more events like this in the future. If you are looking for a place to buy the rolls year-round, you can head to the Chowchilla Chevron off...

According to a new study published in the journal Scientific Reports, adding cinnamon to your diet can cool your stomach by up to two degrees. "The results of the study, which used pigs, seemed to show that cinnamon maintained the integrity of the stomach wall," said study co-lead author Prof. Kourosh Kalantar-zadeh, from RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia. "When pigs feed at room temperature, carbon dioxide gas increases in their stomach." "Cinnamon in their food reduces this gas by decreasing the secretion of gastric acid and pepsin from the stomach walls, which in turn cools the pigs' stomachs during digestion,"...

A child in Kentucky died after he swallowed and choked on cinnamon powder on June 3. The boy's mother, Brianna Radar, told reporters how her 4-year-old son, Matthew, had been climbing around their family’s kitchen and was able to get hold of some cinnamon powder before eating it and breathing it in. “He started choking,” the mother said. “It was like he was having a seizure and just collapsed.” The 4-year-old was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead after an hour and a half. According to the coroner, he had choked on the cinnamon when he inhaled...

The popular spice could be used to fight bacteria.For centuries, cinnamon has been used to enhance the flavor of foods, but new research shows that the spice could also help make foods safer. According to a study by Meijun Zhu and Lina Sheng, food safety scientists at Washington State University in Pullman, the ancient cooking spice could help prevent some of the most serious foodborne illnesses caused by pathogenic bacteria. Zhu and Sheng studied concentrated, or essential, oil extracted from the cassia variety of cinnamon – the most popular type for cooking in the United States. Cassia cinnamon has a...

Digging this summer at the ruins of a 1700 B.C. Canaanite palace in northern Israel, archaeologists struck wine. Near the banquet hall where rulers of a Middle Bronze Age city-state and their guests feasted, a team of American and Israeli researchers broke through to a storage room holding the remains of 40 large ceramic jars. The vessels were broken, their liquid contents long since vanished — but not without a trace. A chemical analysis of residues left in the three-foot-tall jars detected organic traces of acids that are common components of all wine, as well as ingredients popular in ancient...

How far would you go to get your cinnamon fix? If you lived in the Levant 3,000 years ago (a region that includes modern day Israel), very far indeed new research indicates. Researchers analyzing the contents of 27 flasks from five archaeological sites in Israel that date back around 3,000 years have found that 10 of the flasks contain cinnamaldehyde, the compound that gives cinnamon its flavor, indicating that the spice was stored in these flasks. At this time cinnamon was found in the Far East with the closest places to Israel being southern India and Sri Lanka located at...

What happens when one politically correct notion collides with an opposite politically correct notion? Disastrous chaos if you’re the pessimistic type, but hilarious comedy if you’re an irony fan. Take the true story (dailymail.co.uk) of British feminist journalist Cinnamon Heathcote-Drury. She was standing in line behind a Muslim couple at the supermarket check-out, incensed at the indifferent attitude of the Muslim husband as his hajib covered wife struggled to load their many groceries on the conveyor belt. Cinnamon confronted the husband, demanding to know why he didn’t help his poor wife with the groceries. When he ignored her, Cinnamon brushed...

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Eating a diet rich in spices, like turmeric and cinnamon, reduces the body's negative responses to eating high-fat meals, according to Penn State researchers. "Normally, when you eat a high-fat meal, you end up with high levels of triglycerides, a type of fat, in your blood," said Sheila West, associate professor of biobehavioral health, Penn State, who led the study. "If this happens too frequently, or if triglyceride levels are raised too much, your risk of heart disease is increased. We found that adding spices to a high-fat meal reduced triglyceride response by about 30 percent, compared to a similar...

MU scientists make strides in green nanotechnologyCOLUMBIA, Mo. ¬¬¬–Gold nanoparticles, tiny pieces of gold so small that they can't be seen by the naked eye, are used in electronics, healthcare products and as pharmaceuticals to fight cancer. Despite their positive uses, the process to make the nanoparticles requires dangerous and extremely toxic chemicals. While the nanotechnology industry is expected to produce large quantities of nanoparticles in the near future, researchers have been worried about the environmental impact of the global nanotechnological revolution. Now, a study by a University of Missouri research team, led by MU scientist Kattesh Katti, curators' professor...

Science Finding Medical Promise In Kitchen Cabinets By BRIE ZELTNER   Spices lend food wonderful flavors and also impart health benefits. (Photo by Sean Simmers)     [Cleveland, OH] -- In 1993, an eager biochemist at the University of Texas struggled to put the brakes on a protein he had discovered a few years earlier, a protein that can trigger cancers and inflammatory diseases.Bharat Aggarwal knew that the protein, tumor necrosis factor, or TNF, could cause a whole cascade of inflammation in the human body — a very bad thing. He also knew that turmeric, the yellow curry spice, was...

A pedigree cat called Cinnamon has made scientific history by becoming the first feline to have its DNA decoded. The domestic cat now joins the select club of mammals whose genome has been deciphered - including dogs, chimps, rats, mice, cows and people. The genome map is expected to shed light on both feline and human disease. Cats get hundreds of illnesses similar to human ones, including a feline version of HIV, known as FIV, and a hereditary form of blindness. Cinnamon, a four-year-old Abyssinian cat, is descended from lab cats bred to develop retinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative eye disease,...