A team from the United States, Finl...

A team from the United States, Finland and Hong Kong has lay the foundation of that curcumin--found in the Indian spice turmeric--may help debar alcohol-related liver disease (ALD). The spice, which gives curried dish its yellow color, apparently blockades activation of a genetic factor leading to liver inflammation and necrosis.

Curcumin was earlier shown to deactivate a natural compound-called nuclear factor kappa-B (NF-KB)--linked with the production of cancerous small rooms and with blood vessel expansion in tumors.

This same pay by substitution is involved in a number of tissues that are sensitive to alcohol, which give an inkling ofs that any spice that could deactivate NF-KB may also debar alcohol damage to the liver. A newly come study on rats has rest that curcumin prevented ALD, at least in part. The golden spice managed this by inhibiting the oxidation of fats, the activity of NF-KB and inflammation.

There could be uniform further implications for curcumin. about types of hepatitis not related to alcohol consumption can lead to liver cirrhosis and liver cancer. Could curcumin be useful in the treatment of these strains of hepatitis? More research will be penuryed before scientists have a definitive answer.

The research team published its findings in the February 2003 issue of the American Journal of Physiology--Gastrointestinal and Liver Physiology.

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