@ ROSEMARY

There is little more enticing to me than the smell of a ROSEMARY plant and how with just a gentle touch it rubs off onto you fingers. I cant stop myself whenever I see the plants being sold, from touching them. Right now I have ROSEMARY growing on my deck. I know that winter here, will kill it unless I bring it in.
One of the more fascinating things to me about the Outer Banks of North Carolina was how so many herbs that dont survive the winter here, grew well all year outside. The home we rented had an immense Rosemary bush outside the door.

So you feel like burning some hot dogs and hamburgers on the Bar-Bee tonight. You’ve may have heard of Heterocyclic amines. They are the cancer causing compounds formed when meat is burned, but you are going to have a bar b que anyway, what do you do?

There are several phytonutrients that I’ve come across that have an inhibiting effect not only on cancer but the damage caused by heterocyclic amines. I don’t believe that I would make it completely harmless to burn something either on the grill or the stove top, but Rosemary can reduce the downside.

my “raw” research notes appear below, more detailed discussion of the supporting studies may appear later.

–ingredient in “ZYFLAMEND”
–important constituents: CARNOSOL, CARNOSIC ACID, CAFFEIC ACID, ROSMARINIC ACID
–ROSMARINIC ACID is well absorbed from the intestinal tract
–ROSEMARY DEFEATS heterocyclic amines
–inhibits melanoma cell growth
–recent European research showed that ROSEMARY interfered with the absorption of iron in the diet. Therefore should not be used by those with iron deficiency anemia
–some people prone to epileptic seizures have had them triggered by ROSEMARY
–it is anti-mutagenic (important in preventing normal cells from mutating, and cancer cells from mutating into a more refractory form
–large doses of leaves can cause adverse reactions
–CARNOSIC ACID and CARNOSOL are antioxidants that fight cancer. They also reduce the carcinogenic potential of estrogens. In a study on mice they increased beneficial estrogen metabolites by approximately 150% and reduced detriment metabolites by approximately 50%.
–CARNOSIC ACID and CARNOSOL work synergistically with with VITAMIN D.
–extracts applied to human cancer cell lines NCI-H82 (small cell lung), DU 145 (androgen independent prostate cancer), Hep-3b (liver/hepatocellular), K-562 (chronic myeloid leukemia, MCF-7 (breast), PC-3 (AI/prostate cancer), and MDA-MB-231 (breast) …over 48hrs resulting in superior antiproliferative effect.
–ROSEMARY extracts compared with GINGER and TURMERIC showed the strongest antioxidant effects against eight human cancer “ancestries” (cell lines) lung, breast, breast resistant, melanoma, colon, prostate, leukemia, and kidney.
–fifteen compounds were extracted from ROSEMARY and studied for effectiveness against liver, colon and lung cell lines. The compounds with the most cytotoxic activity against cancer cells were: LUTEOLIN, LUTEOLIN GLUCURINIDE, CARNOSIC ACID, CARNOSOL, KAEMPFEROL
–Inhibits human melanoma cell growth, encourages apoptosis (cell death)
–anti-inflammatory
–CARNOSIC ACID reduces multidrug resistance and may enhance the efficacy of cancer chemotherapy
–ROSEMARY leaves are rich in triterpines
–contains LUTEOLIN which has also shown a broad range of activities against cancer
–the intake of CARNOSOL may actually decrease the effectiveness of some standard chemotherapy treatments used for leukemia, thus should not be used by those being treated for leukemia.
–URSOLIC ACID a triterpenoid component of ROSEMARY has antioxidant and anticarcinogenic properties. the activities of MMP (matrix metalloproteinase-9) was “eliminated” by URSOLIC ACID in a dose and time dependent manner. Thus has potential in the treatment of cancer metastasis and invasion
–ROSEMARY may be an effective preventative agent against COX-2 activation
–ROSEMARY and VITAMIN D3…strong cooperative anti-tumor effect in vivo against leukemic cells.
–ROSEMARY is related to OREGANO SAGE BASIL AND THYME
–ROSEMARY is ant-proliferative in a dose dependent manner against HepG2 cells.
–one study concluded that “Conclusively, ROSEMARY can be considered an herbal anti-inflammatory and anti-tumor agent”

I have some ROSEMARY seeds which I will mail to anyone who wants some.
Now all I have to do is figure out just how to use ROSEMARY, maybe in a marinade on some of that grass fed beef rib eye that was being sold at a Bedford Farmer’s Market. A little Himalayan Pink Salt, some OLIVE OIL, balsamic vinegar perhaps..any ideas? Just barely medium…(I am writing this just before dinner, can you tell?)
martin