Christmas Candy Canes Good For Digestion

Wellness

oi-Staff

By Staff

Saturday, December 27, 2008, 8:28

After your Christmas celebrations are over, do not pack away or give away the candy canes. These sugar candies are in fact good for digestion and fight against germs.

The peppermint found in the candy act as defense against irritable bowel syndrome, according to a study lead by McMaster University researcher Alex Ford. "Most of the (effective) species are really from the family Lamiaceae, or mint family," Discovery News quoted Pavel Kloucek, a scientist at the Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague, as saying.

The researchers believe that the peppermint oil and essential oils soon wafted in vapour form over the food and help them to inhibit bacterial growth. For the study the researchers observed the action of essential oils on bacterias responsible for Listeria, Staph, E. coli, and Salmonella infections.

This new study has revealde the antimicrobial activity of the two mint family Mentha villosa and Faassen's catnip -along with another non-mint herb, bluebeard. The other essential oils found in horseradish, garlic, hyssop, basil, marjoram, oregano, winter savory, and three types of thyme also showed similar effects.

The plant essential oils were found to be lipophilic, i.e. they gravitate towards fat, according to Kloucek. "And luckily, in the cell membrane of bacteria, there is plenty of fat, which serves as a seal," he said. "Essential oils are attracted to this fat and, as their molecules squeeze in between the fat molecules, they cause leakage of the membrane," he added.

Various illness could be countered at bay if food could be treated with essential oils, except the unbearable taste of the oils. Where mint is favorable in candy, it might not get along well with other food stuffs. It is therefor important to match the oils with the right food, according to Kloucek and his team.

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