Dr Paul Clayton 2002<\/p>\n
Curcumin, a powerful antioxidant and anti-inflammatory compound found in the curry spice turmeric, has been found to reduce the build-up of plaques associated with Alzheimer’s disease in the brains of transgenic mice specially bred to develop the disease.<\/p>\n
Dr Lim and her colleagues in various Departments of Medicine and Neurology in California divided 23 tenmonth- old male and female transgenic mice (APPS) into groups which were fed either with low dose curcumin (160 ppm), high dose curcumin (5000 ppm) or no curcumin, for six months.<\/p>\n
Brain regions were assayed for beta-amyloid, interleukin-1-beta, oxidised proteins, GFAP (an astrocyte marker) and amyloid precursor. Low and high dose curcumin significantly lowered oxidised proteins and interleukin-1-beta. With low dose curcumin (but not high dose) GFAP, beta-amyloid and plaque burden were reduced by 43-50%. Amyloid precursor in the membrane fraction was not reduced.<\/p>\n
The trial was quite small, and no details were given of study design. Nevertheless, curcumin is very non-toxic, and had a significant suppressant effect on the development of Alzheimer’s Disease in the transgenic mice.<\/p>\n