Tijm en andere kruiden tegen ontstekingen*
Uit een studie naar de werking van verschillende etherische oliën van diverse kruiden blijken vooral die van
tijm, kruidnagels, roos,
eucalyptus, venkel en bargamot het ontstekingsenzym COX-2 te kunnen onderdrukken. Door het COX-2 enzym te onderdrukken wordt ook de
ontsteking geremd. Vooral de bioactieve stof carvacrol in de verschillende kruiden was hiervoor verantwoordelijk. Vooral tijm deed COX-2 wel met 75% verminderen. Kruidnagels, roos, eucalyptus, venkel en bergamot haalden altijd nog 25%. Bij controle met puur carvacrol werd 80% reductie van het COX-2 enzym bereikt.
Thyme Oil Can Inhibit COX2 And Suppress Inflammation
For those who do not drink, researchers have found that six essential oils - from thyme, clove, rose, eucalyptus, fennel and bergamot - can suppress the inflammatory COX-2 enzyme, in a manner similar to resveratrol, the chemical linked with the health benefits of red wine. They also identified that the chemical carvacrol was primarily responsible for this suppressive
activity.
These findings, appearing in the Journal of Lipid Research, provide more understanding of the health benefits of many botanical oils and provide a new avenue for anti-inflammatory drugs.
Essential oils from plants have long been a component of home remedies, and even today are used for their aromatherapy, analgesic (e.g. cough drops), or antibacterial properties. Of course, the exact way they work is not completely understood. However, Hiroyasu Inoue and colleagues in Japan believed that many essential oils might target COX-2 much like compounds in wine and tea.
So, they screened a wide range of commercially available oils and identified six (thyme, clove, rose, eucalyptus, fennel and bergamot) that reduced COX-2 expression in cells by at least 25%. Of these, thyme oil proved the most active, reducing COX-2 levels by almost 75%.
When Inoue and colleagues analyzed thyme oil, they found that the major component -carvacrol - was the primary active agent; in fact when they use pure carvacrol extracts in their tests COX-2 levels decreased by over 80%.
From the article: "Carvacrol, a component of thyme oil, activates PPAR-gamma and suppresses COX-2 expression" by Mariko Hotta, Rieko Nakata, Michiko Katsukawa, Kazuyuki Hori, Saori Takahashi, and Hiroyasu Inoue
Author: Hiroyasu Inoue, Department of Food Science and Nutrition, Nara Women's University, Nara, Japan;.
Source: Nick Zagorski
American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (Maart 2010)
