Basil may Protect against Alzheimer’s Disease

Basil has a natural compound Fenchol that can help them to protect the brain against Alzheimer’s Disease pathology. The preclinical study was led by the University of South Florida Health. The study was published on Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience.

The researchers discovered a sensing mechanism associated with the gut microbiome that explains how fenchol reduces neurotoxicity in the Alzheimer’s brain.The evidence shows that short-chain fatty acid metabolites produced by beneficial gut bacteria are the primary source of nutrition for cells in your colon that contribute to brain health.

High levels of short-chain fatty acid are reduced in older patients with mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s Disease. However, a decline in SCFAs contributing to Alzheimer’s Disease progression remains largely unknown. Gut-derived SCFAs that travel through the blood to the brain can bind to and activate free fatty acid receptor 2 a cell-signalling molecule expressed on brain cells called neurons.

One of the two hallmark pathologies of Alzheimer’s Disease is hardened deposits of Aβ that clump together between nerve cells to form amyloid protein plaques in the brain. The other is neurofibrillary tangles of tau protein inside brain cells. The hallmark pathologies contribute to the neuron loss and death that cause the beginning of Alzheimer’s, a neurodegenerative disease characterized by loss of memory, thinking skills and other cognitive abilities.