Spices as Natural products and their medicinal values
Rabindra Dey*
Department of Chemistry, Cooch Behar College Cooch Behar-736101 (India) Mail: rabindradey1975@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
A number of plants are used the world over as spices, which in a very small amount produce a desirable flavour in the food cooked. Every spice imparts a specific flavour to the food in which it is added. Apart from the use of spice plants as flavouring agents, they are used in the treatment of a vairety of ailments. It is due to the presence of some specific chemicals called Active principles which target a particular ailment. They may act as antimicrobial, antilithic, analgesic, anthelminitic antidiabetic, antipiyretic and even anticarcinogenic. For instance the active pinciples eugenol and linalool come from bay leaf, curcumin from turmeric, cuminaldehyde from cumin. Zingiberene from ginger, monoterpene oxides & carbonyls from coriander and Capsaicinoids from chillies.