Spices and Parkinson’s disease

A spice is a part of plant such as seed, fruit, root, bark, berry, budor vegetable substance that is primarily used for flavoring, coloring or preserving food. Indian spices are used as preservative, impart good smell and flavor to food. Many of these spices, herbs, and oils have been used for health and medicinal purposes also. Turmeric, pepper, ginger, cloves, cinnamon, onion, garlic and nutmeg are found in the kitchensof almost every people of the world today. In Asian population, where people regularly consume spices, low incidence of certain neurodegenerative diseases including Parkinson’s disease (PD) is reported. For example an adult in India can consume 80-200 mg/day of curcumin, the bioactive component of turmeric or about 50 g of garlic in a week. Extensive research over the last 20 years has indicated that nutraceuticals derived from such spices as turmeric, red pepper, black pepper, licorice, clove, ginger, garlic, coriander, and cinnamon target mitochondrial and proteosome dysfunction, oxidative stress, inflammation and apoptosis, thereby preventing PD.