Nutmeg may protect the liver from damage. Nutmeg, a hard brown seed commonly used as a spice can help treat asthma, rheumatic pain, toothaches, and infections.

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Nutmeg is a spice that provides a whole lot of health benefits and used as a remedy to treat gastrointestinal illnesses, asthma, rheumatic pain, toothaches, and infections. The protective role of nutmeg extends by preventing hyperlipidemia, hyperglycemia, heart tissue damage and hepatotoxicity. Myrislignan, a compound present in nutmeg can prevent liver damage.
In the laboratory, researchers have shown that nutmeg can fight hyperlipidemia, hyperglycemia, heart tissue damage and hepatotoxicity. Inspired by these studies, Xiu-Wei Yang, Frank Gonzalez, Fei Li, and colleagues wanted to see how nutmeg prevents damage to the liver.
The researchers used a mouse animal model of liver toxicity to test the mechanism behind nutmeg's protective effects. Metabolomics analyses showed that nutmeg likely protected against liver damage by restoring the mice to more healthy levels of various lipids and acylcarnitines.
Gene expression studies showed that peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha (PPARα) was modulated by nutmeg, and the spice didn't protect mice from liver injury if the PPARα gene was deleted. In addition, the team found that a specific compound in nutmeg, myrislignan, had a strong protective effect against liver damage.
Source-Eurekalert
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