Rosemary is Good for the Brain

Filed in archive Alzheimer's Disease , Functional Foods , Studies on November 4, 2007

Rosemary - that herb good for cooking chicken and lamb dishes - has been found to be good for the brain too.

Rosemary is a shrubby evergreen bush and, according to folklore, takes its name from the Virgin Mary, who draped her cloak on the bush, placing a white flower on top of the cloak. By the following morning, the flower had turned blue, and thereafter the plant was known as the "Rose of Mary."

Rosemary, grown in the Alps since the Middle Ages, has became part of European folk medicine, and was thought to help the nervous system and ward off sickness. Until now, however, the exact chemical pathways involved in its beneficial effects have remained unknown.

A collaborative group from the Burnham Institute for Medical Research (Burnham Institute) in La Jolla, CA and in Japan reported that the herb rosemary contains an ingredient that fights off free radical damage in the brain.




The said active ingredient in rosemary is called carnosic acid (CA). CA can protect the brain from stroke and neurodegeneration that is due to injurious chemical free radicals.

[These radicals are thought to contribute not only to stroke and neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer's, but also to the ill effects of normal aging on the brain.]

In animal models, the scientific group, led by Drs. Takumi Satoh (Iwate University, Japan) and Stuart Lipton (Burnham Institute), found that CA becomes activated by the free radical damage itself, remaining innocuous unless needed, exactly what is wanted in a drug.

The scientists call this type of action a "pathological-activated therapeutic" or PAT drug. A "pat" represents a gentle tap and not the heavy sledge hammer that some drugs produce, including significant side effects in areas of the body where their effects are not needed and not wanted.

Report for the first time that CA activates a novel signaling pathway that protects brain cells from the ravages of free radicals appears in two expedited publications by The Journal of Neurochemistry and Nature Reviews Neuroscience.

So, rosemary chicken, anyone?

Find more details from Burnham Institute of Medical Research.