There are many plants known to have health benefits, or to be anti-cancer allies. To this list we can now add two herbs, thyme and oregano. At least that’s what American researchers say. in the review PNAS.
The list of interesting compounds was already known, in particular for other properties: anti-inflammatory, antibacterial or even antioxidant, specifies the study. These are carvacrol, thymol or even thymohydroquinone. But these molecules also have the advantage of being anti-tumors.
Towards a hope of anti-cancer drugs?
Unfortunately, it is not enough to eat a lot of thyme and oregano to benefit from this action, because it is contained in far too small quantities. But the researchers worked on a track to extract and boost it. They managed to better understand how this compound (and others in the same category) emerged, i.e. the entire process of biosynthesis.
Now that they know when and how the compound is produced, they have the means to understand how to synthesize it, increase its action, and manufacture it in a more concentrated way to exploit its anti-cancer properties to the maximum.
Source : The biosynthesis of thymol, carvacrol, and thymohydroquinone in Lamiaceae proceeds via cytochrome P450s and a short-chain dehydrogenasePNAS, December 28, 2021.
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