When it comes to curry leaves, people are divided. Some people love the earthy taste, fishing the leaves out of curries and gravies to relish on them. Some find the taste too overpowering and hate the thought of biting into a leave while eating. Curry leaf haters, you should seriously consider giving this herb a fighting chance, especially if you have memory issues!
We all know that this little herb has amazing health benefits, irrespective of how you use it. Nevertheless, not many know that curry leaves have memory-boosting properties. A study conducted on mice, which was published in Phytotherapy Research in March 2009 [1], confirmed this surprising fact. The researchers gave the mice drugs such as scopolamine and diazepam, which are known to cause amnesia. Then they fed them a diet comprising of 2 percent, 4 percent and 8 percent curry leaves for 30 days. The purpose was to study the effect the diet had on the cognitive abilities, total serum cholesterol level and brain cholinesterase activity of the mice.
At the end of the study, the researchers found that the curry leaves significantly improved the memory scores of the mice and reduced their amnesia. The diet reduced the brain cholinesterase activity and total cholesterol levels of the mice. The researchers believe that it may be because of the pro-cholinergic activity and cholesterol-lowering property of the leaves.
In the future, the role of curry leaves in dealing with degenerative brain disease can be analysed. It could potentially also be beneficial for guarding the mind against ravaging illnesses such as Alzheimer’s and dementia.
Here is a brain-boosting tea made of curry leaves that you can have every morning instead of your caffeine-infused beverages. Your brain will thank you.
Ingredients
A spring of curry leaves
2 cups of water
A lump of jaggery
A pinch of jeera
A small piece of ginger
A pinch of black salt
Method
1. Roast jeera on a tawa and crush it with a mortar and pestle.
2. In a saucepan, boil two cups of water with the curry leaves.
3. Add the jump of jaggery.
4. When the water is properly infused, turn off the stove after five minutes.
5. Pour it into a cup.
6. Add the black salt.
7. Sprinkle the tea with the jeera powder.
8. Sip hot!
If you can hold back the jaggery, the ginger or cumin if the tastes don’t excite you. You can also prepare a tea out of only curry leaves; even that would taste just as ‘unforgettable’!
References:
Vasudevan M, Parle M. Antiamnesic potential of Murraya koenigii leaves. Phytother Res. 2009 Mar;23(3):308-16. doi: 10.1002/ptr.2620. PubMed PMID: 18844259.
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