The Importance of Local Spices and Herbs to the Human Health
CHAPTER ONE
Objective Of Study
This research work is aimed at analyzing the physicochemical and antioxidant properties of culinary and local spices. The objectives of this research are to identify plants that are used as medicinal herbs and spices in Zaria local government, to document how and what they are used for, to know the importance of the various spices and herbs and to know the form or plants parts that is mostly used.
It also aims at achieving this will go along way in analyzing their uses and their uses and their nutritional value. It will also take as its objective to review the historical concept of the culinary herbs and spices and their functions.
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Introduction
Herbs and spices have been used in many different ways. Since the ancient times, spices and culinary herbs have been added to food to enhance flavor and improve their organoleptic properties.
Spices and herbs have also been widely used as preservatives and medicine.
Spices and herbs have been extensively studied in different countries because of the high antioxidant activity in certain spices and their beneficial effects on human health [1–22]. As part of our diet, spices and herbs, in addition to fruits and vegetables, could provide us with additional sources of natural antioxidants. Antioxidants from spices are a large group of bioactive compounds which consist of flavonoids, phenolic compounds, sulfur-containing compounds, tannins, alkaloids, phenolic diterpenes, and vitamins [7–9,11–13,16,21]. These compounds demonstrate different antioxidant activities. For example, flavonoids have the ability to scavenge free radicals and can form complexes with catalytic metal ions rendering them inactive. Studies have shown that spices and herbs such as rosemary, sage, and oregano are excellent sources of antioxidants with their high content of phenolic compounds.
Antioxidants can protect lipids and oils in food against oxidative degradation. When added to food, antioxidants control rancidity development, retard the formation of toxic oxidation products, maintain nutritional quality, and extend the shelf-life of products. Because of safety concerns, synthetic antioxidants are limited to be used as food preservatives. Natural antioxidants obtained from edible materials such as spices and herbs, have been of increasing interest.
Natural antioxidants contained in spices help to reduce oxidative stress. Oxidative stress, which is caused by high concentration of free radicals in cells and tissues, can be induced by various negative factors, such as gamma, UV, and X-ray radiation, psycho-emotional stress, polluted food, adverse environmental conditions, intensive physical exertion, smoking, alcoholism, and drug addiction. Chronic oxidative stress has been reported to lead to a variety of diseases, including cancer, heart related diseases, and the acceleration of aging. Several secondary products of lipid oxidation, such as malondialdehyde and 4-hydroxynonenal, can react with biological components such as proteins, amino acids, and DNA. Malondialdehyde has been shown to be formed both enzymatically and non-enzymatically, and has been implicated in health problems such as mutagenesis and carcinogenesis. Spices and culinary herbs are rich in antioxidants. Therefore, spices could potentially be used as ameliorative or preventive agents for some health issues [5,6,10,13,14,16].
To have a better understanding of the antioxidant activity from spices, we present the bioactive compounds, the content of flavonoids, and the total polyphenols in different spices. The therapeutic effects of various spices for different diseases are summarized. Other applications of spices and herbs are briefly described in this review.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research design
This study employed both social survey and direct field observation.
Study area
The study was carried out within Zaria local government area of Kaduna state. The state is located in the northern part of Nigeria. Zaria has a history of sedentary Hausa settlement with institutional but pre-capitalist market exchange and farming, over 80% of the people involved in agriculture. The location is 96015’E to 98060’E longitude and 9002’N to 11032’N latitude
Source of materials
The study made use of both primary and secondary sources of data. During this study herbalist, traditional medicine men and women, restaurant owners, women whose work are catering and aged persons were interviewed. The interviews were conducted with fairly open framework that allowed for focused, conversational, two-way communication. Their selection was geographically widespread to accommodate a good sample of the entire population.
Data collection
Plant species used as sources of medicinal herbs and spices by the respondents were bought from the Zaria city main market (Dirimi) and documented. It was done in company of the practitioners. The plants were then taken to the herbarium of the Department of Biological sciences ABU Zaria, for proper identification.
CHAPTER FOUR
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Results
A total of 45 species of plants belonging to families were recorded. These where reported be used in control of diseases and flavoring of various food substances. The family zingiberaceae has the highest number of prescription, closely followed by combretaceae, meliaceae, liliaceae, poaceae, annonaceae, moraceae and e.t.c.
Discussion
A total of 44 plant species were identified and documented to be used as medicinal herbs and spices in Zaria (Table 1). These species ranged from herbs to trees and are used for various reasons (Table 2). The various parts of the species used are leaves, stem, seeds, fruits, flower, bulbs, rhizome, stems and roots (Table 3). However the most widely utilized parts are the barks, leaves and stem (66%) while the least utilized part is the rhizome (4%). Field observation also revealed that the medicinal herbs and spices are widely utilized in Zaria by every segments of the society irrespective of age, sex, economic and social status.
CHAPTER FIVE
CONCLUSION
The study of medicinal herbs and spices in Zaria local government area has shown that there is a long history of wide acceptability of traditional medicine among the people and that the area is diversified in medicinal herbs and spices. The major problems that emanated from the practitioners or herbalist was their reluctance to give adequate information with the fear of one not making away with their source or means of livelihood and possibly putting them off the market. Also, attempt to obtain more precise quantification for preparations and dose did not enjoy much coherence as the healers also do not employ the use of standard measurement or scale. Such information were recorded in approximate terms such as one handful, two pieces of roots, some number of leaves, one cup three times a day, one spoon three times a day etc.
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