Cinnamon May Protect Against Infection, Study Finds

Cinnamon – Posses Antiviral Effects in Prevention of Infection

An initial study of Touro College in New York recommends that household cinnamon tends to possessantiviral effects which help in the prevention of infection in body. As per a new release Dr Milton Schiffenbauer, of New York School of Career and Applied Studies, a division of Touro College & University System together with his team compared Saign and Ceylon cinnamons to other botanic extracts comprising of onion, cloves, cocoa, peppermint and Spanish saffron.

Though cinnamon appeared to deactivate viruses in some organisms, other extracts did not.Researchers evaluated the extracts against Phi X which is a virus that infects bacteria and has various similarities to viruses infecting animals and humans. After a period of 24 hours of incubation, an extract with 10% cinnamon deactivated 99.9% to 100% of the virus following only 10 minutes of recurrent mixing as per the news release. Schiffenbauer, stated in the news release that his colleagues’ discoveries indicate that cinnamon extract has the potential to damage the structure of the PhiX virus.

Prevention/Elimination of Virus

He stated that `the results validates our belief that a diet that includes a tablespoon of cinnamon, once or twice a day could be effective in the prevention or elimination of viruses which tend to infect humans resulting in sickness like cold, flu and even herpes. He along with his team would be presenting their initial discoveries at the American Society for Microbiology Annual Meeting.

Though the inactivation of viruses was conducted utilising a model system, the researcher wrote in the study that the similarities between the bacteriophage that was used for testing and viruses which infect animals, justify their conclusions from the study. As per a new study in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, it is said that the compound responsible in giving cinnamon its sweet, bright smell could probably plays an important role in warding off Alzheimer’s disease.

Researchers from University of California, Santa Barbara observed that the cinnamon compounds cinnamaldehyde and epicatechin could be helpful in stopping tangles of tau protein, disreputable in the memory robbing neurodegenerative disease, from forming in the brain. Tau proteins tend to form clumps and tangles with age.

Helps in Lowering Blood Sugar – Type 2 Diabetes

However Alzheimer victims are known to have more of these clumps than the people who do not have this disease. It was also observed by the researchers in cell lab research that cinnamaldehye helps to prevent these combinations by protecting the tau proteins from stress of oxidative. For instance, sunburn is a form of oxidative damage, according to study researcher Roshni Graves, an adjunct professor in the university’s department of molecular, cellular and developmental biology, that `if one tends to wear a hat, it could protect the face and head from the oxidation which in true sense, the cinnamaldehye acts as a cap’.

Graves has commented in a statement that researchers have however acknowledged that they are still getting to know whether this would work in the life of human beings and people should not attempt consuming high amounts of cinnamon beyond what is utilised in food to protect from Alzheimer’s disease. Other research has also showed that besides brain health, cinnamon could also help in lowering blood sugar in people with type 2 diabetes, as supplement to regular treatment as indicated by Mayo Clinic.