title: Dietary spices in health and diseases (II).
abstract: Dietary spices influence various systems in the body such as gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, reproductive and nervous systems resulting in diverse metabolic and physiologic actions. As inheritors of a long tradition of the use of spices in diet as well as in indigenous medicines we know that these are treatments often honed over centuries with well-established reputations for efficacy. A rigorous review of these manifold beneficial effects may provide a fair basis for prescription in many clinical conditions where confirmed modern drug treatments do not exist or as adjunct therapy to reduce the dosage or the, risk of side effects. This essay attempts to adjudicate the traditional use of dietary spices based on factual research evidence for their multivalent actions as health promoting dietary additives as well as putative therapeutic agents.
authors: Department of Physiology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi.
authors: K P
authors: KP
authors: Kochhar
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001341:Autonomic Nervous System / Q000187:drug effects; D050260:Carbohydrate Metabolism / Q000187:drug effects; D002463:Cell Membrane Permeability / Q000187:drug effects; D004032:Diet; D004730:Endothelium, Vascular / Q000187:drug effects; D005744:Gastric Acid / Q000378:metabolism; D005769:Gastrointestinal Motility / Q000187:drug effects; D041981:Gastrointestinal Tract / Q000187:drug effects; D006801:Humans; D050356:Lipid Metabolism / Q000187:drug effects; D010437:Peptic Ulcer / Q000139:chemically induced; D028321:Plant Preparations / Q000494:pharmacology*; D012098:Reproduction / Q000187:drug effects; D017365:Spices
chemical_list: D028321:Plant Preparations