New research has found that curry's brain repair properties are a reality, or at least when the subjects are rats; however, when the investigations reach human beings, if the findings are the same, we could be looking at curry for brain repairing and not only to give a slightly spicy taste to everyday meals.
The new curry brain repair findings were made by a group of researchers from the Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine in Julich, Germany, as the BBC reports, and were published in the journal Stem Cell Research and Therapy. In the investigation, scientist researched the effects of aromatic-turmerone (a compound found in turmeric, the plant that will give curries their bright yellow-orange color) on rodent subjects.
The study involved performing brain scans on rats, before and after the injection of a turmeric compound, the Mother Nature Network reports. After the scans, the scientists found that those parts of the brain that are known to be involved in nerve cell growth were more active after the rats received the turmeric injections, which would indirectly mean a positive effect of curry in brain repair, at least in the subjects studied - which is to say, the rats.
The team also conducted a second study that involved neural stem cells (NSCs): in it, they bathed the NSCs (collected from rats) in extracts of aromatic-turmerone - and they found that those stem cells bathed in the compound were more prolific and specialized into certain types of brain cells faster.
While the new curry brain damage discoveries are quite interesting and could potentially mean better medication for a good number of brain diseases (such as dementia or Alzheimer's). However, as mentioned before, for now this has only been tested in rats, and it's unknown what kind of effect the compound might have on humans - but it wouldn't hurt to eat curry chicken for dinner tonight, just in case.
