Cilantro is one of those delicious herbs that add a great taste to any dish. And the seeds from the cilantro plant — commonly called coriander in North America — are equally flavorful. If you don’t use coriander seeds when cooking, maybe it’s time to give this healing food a try. In recent health news, coriander is being studied for its heart-protective effects.
Researchers from the Faculty of Science, The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, in Gujarat, India, conducted a complex study using coriander seeds. They set out to determine the preventive effect of coriander seed on cardiac damage.
In this animal trial, rats were pretreated with an extract of coriander seed for 30 days. For the last two days the rats were also administered “isoproterenol.” Isoproterenol is a bronchodilator. It works by relaxing muscles in the airways to improve breathing. For this reason, isoproterenol is a drug commonly used to treat conditions such as asthma, bronchitis, and emphysema.
The research team found that the isoproterenol-treated rats showed decreased levels of antioxidants together with increased plasma lipids and markers of cardiac damage. Further tests revealed increased infarct areas (areas where tissue death has resulted due to an obstruction of blood supply) and muscle cell disruption. The coriander seed pretreatment significantly prevented or resisted all these
changes.
See another health benefit of coriander here.
The researchers concluded that an extract of coriander seed is able to prevent heart attack by inhibiting myofibrillar (the protein component of muscle fiber) damage. They also concluded that the rich polyphenolic content of coriander seed extract is responsible for preventing oxidative damage by effectively scavenging free radicals.
There are many recipes that use coriander seed. Check them out online. Adding coriander seed to your diet could help to protect you heart muscle from damage. And, because it has polyphenols that act like antioxidants, it could help protect you from the damage caused by reactive oxygen species. Reactive oxygen species are largely responsible for the functional decline we all experience as we age.