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[Best Syndication] Gourmet cooking could be good for you with rosemary herbed entrees offering health benefits to your brain. Researchers from the Burnham Institute for Medical Research (Burnham Institute) in La Jolla, CA and in Japan found that rosemary contains carnosic acid (CA) which can protect the brain from free radicals.

Damage to the brain occurs when chemical free radicals occur such as with a stroke or neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s. There were two researchers that reported how carnosic acid protects the brain cells from free radicals. They first published their findings in the Journal of Neurochemistry and Nature Reviews Neuroscience.

The protective effect of carnosic acid can also be beneficial to a normal aging brain as well because everyone has free radicals to some degree in their system.

Drs. Takumi Satoh from Iwate University, Japan and Stuart Lipton from Burnham Institute studied animal models found that CA becomes activated by the free radical damage itself. The CA remains harmless if there is no damage present. The benefits of CA have the effects of a helpful drug therapy. The researchers said that this kind of action is called a “pathological-activated therapeutic” or PAT drug. The researchers say that the effect of CA is gentle and not heavy causing unwanted side effects in other areas of the body.

The researchers are upbeat on the potential of CA for being developed into therapy for neurological conditions because it is found in rosemary and humans have consumed this herb for over a thousand years.

Rosemary was named after the Virgin Mary who was said to have laid her cloak on the bush with a white flower on top. The next morning the flower had turned blue. The plant was called the “Rose of Mary.”

Rosemary was ground in the Middle Ages in the Alps. There has been a history of medicinal folk remedies that were used to treat the nervous system and to prevent sickness.

The compounds in rosemary were unknown until recently which has identified the beneficial compound of CA. The researchers believe that a new class of drugs can be made to help treat neurological conditions. With their discovery Satoh and Lipton have eagerly filed a United States patent application in anticipation of the manufacturing of the new drug class.

The good news is that you can cook with rosemary today, and growing rosemary is relatively easy. So next time you make a roast you might think about flavoring it with rosemary.

By Mark Barone
Best Syndication News Health Writer