spices – Clinical Alimentary

Chemistry-of-Ginger-1024x724 — http://www.compoundchem.com/2014/11/27/ginger/

The next ingredient to be reviewed is ginger. Ginger has many studies into its use to treat vomiting in pregnancy and to treat nausea during treatments such as chemotherapy or reducing sickness after surgery. Ginger has a long history of being used as a natural treatment for nausea, so one might expect that it could be used to reduce some of the symptoms of IBS. It is one of the most common herbal treatments used by patients to attempt to ameliorate symptoms of IBS (1). The action of ginger on the digestive tract is suggested to be an increase in prokinetic action of the tract (increasing movement or contractions without disrupting the rhythm) and it has also been suggested to be useful in pain reduction. The active ingredients in ginger can be seen in the diagram above and a placebo-controlled RCT parallel study in IBS (2) used the pharmaceutical grade ginger containing 2.29 mg/g of gingerols and 6-shogaols. Raw and cooked ginger contain different chemical compounds and may have different modes of action on the digestive tract.

The study had a good choice of placebo (brown sugar) tolerated by most patients with IBS. Study numbers were small – a larger trial with at least 100 patients per group would give a chance of better results. Larger doses appeared to give poorer results from this study, but the numbers in each group were small. We are aware that IBS is a very heterogeneic condition (wide variation in symptoms between people) and studying those people reporting more upper GI symptoms of IBS such as nausea and reflux plus constipation might improve results if the mode of action is to increase stomach emptying and increase digestive tract motility. The study, unfortunately, did not show that ginger was effective compared with placebo so we have therefore no evidence that ginger is an effective treatment for IBS.

Does it cause harm?

Side effects in the study chosen were greater in the placebo group, the relevance for this is unknown – IBS is a challenging condition to treat with relapsing-remitting symptoms – no significance can be seen in regard to side effects as no statistics were applied to check whether this was significant in the study reviewed. Ginger is thought to be a safe treatment – ginger is also suitable to be used for the Low fodmap diet. So a great tasting low fodmap ingredient – but don’t expect it will stop your IBS symptoms.

Just the ticket for a recipe then!

This is a very easy recipe to prepare and these biscuits can be stored in an airtight tin. They may go soft if not stored correctly.

Ingredients

325g Gluten Free self-raising Mix (I used Doves Farm)

1 tsp. xanthan gum

a beaten egg

75g muscovado sugar

75g golden syrup

75g butter

2 tsp. ground ginger

Method

Melt the butter, sugar and golden syrup in a pan then cool till the mix is only just warm

Beat the egg

Add the dry ingredients to a bowl and ensure the xanthan gum is mixed into the flour.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix well till the mixture forms a dough.

Work this well.

Roll out the pastry dough into a thin sheet on grease-proof paper or a Teflon sheet and cut out the biscuits.

Add the biscuits to a greased baking tray and cook till golden brown in a moderate temperature oven – gas mark 4 or 180 degrees C

Makes around 30 biscuits (depending on what size cutter is used.)

1.Van Tilburg MA, Palsson OS, Levy RL, et al. (2008) Complementary and alternative medicine use and cost in functional bowel disorders: a six month prospective study in a large HMO. BMC Complement Altern Med. 2008; 8:46.

2. VAN TILBURG MA, PALSSON O S, RINGEL Y and WHITEHEAD WE (2014) Is ginger effective for the treatment of Irritable Bowel Syndrome? A double blind randomized controlled pilot trial Complement Ther Med. 22(1): 17–20. doi:10.1016/j.ctim.2013.12.015

Chemistry-of-Turmeric — http://www.compoundchem.com/

Turmeric is a wonderful ingredient to add to a curry – it has also been exalted as a wonder food with lots of great benefits for health. Some of the more pervasive anecdotes with regards to turmerics ‘heath benefits’ are antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer effects and benefits for digestive health and IBS.

I have always had a bit of a problem with the anti-oxidant hypothesis in health, as an ex-polymer chemist, I was very experienced in protecting polymer products such as paints and adhesives from the effects of oxidation and environmental free radical degradation. This was not always easy to achieve – even the in simplest of formulations.

These free radical reactions do occur in our bodies – at a base level we are a very complex mix of chemical reactions and our bodies contain polymers. Turmeric is a polyphenol, and polyphenols do show anti-oxidant properties. With anti-oxidant protection, as a chemical reaction, one factor needs to be fulfilled – the anti-oxidant has to be situated at the site where the free radical reactions occur to be able to mop them up. Therefore any research involving turmeric in Petri dishes to observe it’s anti-oxidant (and anti-inflammatory or anti-cancer effects), or by feeding animals unsustainably large amounts may be very interesting, but far from proving it to be an effective anti-oxidant in our body. There is a problem with turmeric – it is very poorly absorbed in the digestive tract, it has poor solubility – therefore it would be difficult to transport it to the site of reaction. If the anti-oxidant cannot physically be transported to the site of free radical reaction, then it is clearly not possible for it to react! Until this problem is solved it is perhaps an entirely useless medical treatment, and of course, it needs to be studied in humans as a treatment, with randomized controlled trials and ultimately a systematic review. These problems can possibly be solved – by utilizing chemistry.

But…but…turmeric is ‘natural’, is the response, so therefore it is surely better for us than all those ‘chemicals’ in medicines? If you are going to use the anti-oxidant theory for the promotion of ‘alternative’ natural care, then you are buying into chemistry by using this as your argument. Spoiler alert – curcumin, the active compound in turmeric, is a chemical – see the infographic above. If it was effective it would be called a medicine, which may be possible in the future with lot’s more health research – but certainly, we are a very long way from this now. One research paper proposed turmeric as a jack-of-all-trades, in other words ‘useful’ for numerous health areas, which concomitantly also means master of none, an insightful figure of speech here, perhaps.

For digestive complaints, turmeric has a long history of use in Ayurvedic medicine as a compound which can be useful for indigestion, but with little strong evidence for effective use in either IBS or indigestion – just tantalizing pre-clinical trials and uncontrolled studies.

Past history has taught us that medicines are often derived from naturally occurring pharmacological plants, so research of turmeric should certainly continue – but we really shouldn’t be tempted to jump the gun with promoting turmerics alleged health effects, this is disingenuous.

So does turmeric have any benefits at all? Of course! Turmeric is low fodmap as a spice and can be used to flavour low fodmap recipes for people who have irritable bowel syndrome and imparts these foods with a very vibrant colour. If you are wanting a January ‘health kick’ from turmeric, or use it to ‘cure’ your IBS, then think again, but enjoying a great, warming, vibrant low fodmap meal made from turmeric, either low fodmap curry, or the low fodmap soup recipe below, in the depth of winter, is surely a sublime use of this wonderful spice?

Carrot, ginger and turmeric soup

Ingredients

500g carrots

1 tablespoon of oil

1 teaspoon of Moroccan spice (Fodify)

1 teaspoon of ginger

2 teaspoons of turmeric

1500mls water

seasoning to taste

Method

Peel and chop the carrots

Fry the spices in oil to release the flavour