{"id":291146,"date":"2026-02-19T05:36:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T05:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/291146\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T05:36:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T05:36:09","slug":"plant-synergies-for-supplements-study-finds-anti-inflammatory-remedy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/291146\/","title":{"rendered":"Plant synergies for supplements: Study finds anti-inflammatory remedy"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Japanese study investigating the synergy between plants found combinations with anti-inflammatory effects. Capsaicin \u2014 the main bioactive compound in chili peppers that creates heat \u2014 was the most potent anti-inflammatory compound. When combined with menthol or 1,8-cineole (eucalyptol), the anti-inflammatory effect increased by several hundred times.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The researchers say the findings suggest new ways to innovate in functional foods, supplements, seasonings, or fragrances, delivering significant effects with small amounts of active ingredients.<\/p>\n

Chronic inflammation is one of the main drivers for cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, arthritis, and cancer. It often manifests as a \u201csilent process,\u201d without immediate symptoms or pain.<\/p>\n

Immune cells release chemicals to fight perceived infections or injury, a process known to be influenced by diet. Various food products, including spices, herbs, and aromatic plants, contain phytochemicals that regulate inflammatory pathways.<\/p>\n

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Many plant-based compounds have previously shown anti-inflammatory effects in studies, but at concentrations way above what is feasible to consume from a normal diet. This has sparked debate over how anti-inflammatory foods can affect the body\u2019s immune response.<\/p>\n

The study notes that the synergistic anti-inflammatory effects of phytochemical combinations and their underlying mechanisms are insufficiently understood.<\/p>\n

Botanical synergy<\/p>\n

The mechanism behind the synergistic function is explained as \u201cmenthol and 1,8-cineole acting through transient receptor potential (TRP) channels and calcium signaling, whereas capsaicin has been suggested to suppress inflammation through a different pathway, independent of TRP.\u201d<\/p>\n

The natural compound 1,8-cineole is found in various essential oils, most notably eucalyptus oil.<\/p>\n

The study<\/a>, published in Nutrients, used a gene expression analysis, protein level measurements, and calcium imaging analysis to investigate how these compounds affected key inflammatory biomarkers.<\/p>\n

\"eucalyptusThe natural compound 1,8-cineole is found in various essential oils, most notably eucalyptus oil.It found that combining capsaicin with menthol or 1,8-cineole reduced effective concentrations by 699-fold and 154-fold, respectively.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe demonstrated that this synergistic effect is not a coincidence, but is based on a novel mode of action resulting from the simultaneous activation of different intracellular signaling pathways,\u201d says lead researcher and professor Gen-ichiro Arimura from the Department of Biological Science and Technology, Tokyo University of Science.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis provides clear molecular-level evidence for the empirically known effects of combining food ingredients.\u201d<\/p>\n

The findings aim to explain how combining plant compounds can cause biological effects through diet, even at low doses.<\/p>\n

It suggests that the health benefits of plant-rich diets may not be attributed to a single food, but rather to the synergy created by interactions among components.<\/p>\n

\u201cSpecific combinations of plant-derived functional components can markedly enhance anti-inflammatory efficacy, supporting dietary strategies that harness multiple phytochemicals for inflammation control and disease prevention,\u201d the authors conclude.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Japanese study investigating the synergy between plants found combinations with anti-inflammatory effects. Capsaicin \u2014 the main bioactive…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":291147,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3032,13565,111,139,69,161288,145],"class_list":{"0":"post-291146","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-anti-inflammatory","9":"tag-functional-foods","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz","13":"tag-plant-synergies","14":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/291147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}