HerbalScience Research Demonstrates that Optimized Turmeric Extract Inhibits Amyloid-Beta Accumulation, a Hallmark of Alzheimer...( NAPLES Fla. Sept. 3...),Health

NAPLES, Fla., Sept. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia among the elderly and is projected to increase in prevalence over the next decades as the population ages -- creating an urgent need for treatments that will prevent or reverse the now-inexorable course of cognitive deterioration and memory loss. Because development of synthetic drugs is expensive and complex, many researchers are focusing on botanical extracts whose benefits have been documented by traditional medicine systems. In that vein, scientists with HerbalScience Group LLC, working with researchers from other organizations and medical institutions, conducted an in-depth study of optimized turmeric extracts, demonstrating that key bioactives in the botanical extracts inhibit aggregation and release of amyloid, a protein fragment considered a prime causal suspect in Alzheimer's disease.

An article detailing the study, titled "Optimized Turmeric Extracts Have Potent Anti-Amyloidogenic Effects," will be published in the December 2009 issue of Current Alzheimer's Research, a peer-reviewed scientific journal. The authors are affiliated with several research organizations and medical institutions, including HerbalScience Group LLC; the University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine, Miami, Florida; the University of South Florida College of Medicine, Tampa, Florida; Veterans Administration Hospital, Research Service, Tampa, Florida; and Natura Therapeutics, Tampa, Florida.

"The optimized extracts outperformed curcumin, the best studied anti-Alzheimer extract from turmeric," said Randall S. Alberte, Ph.D., one of the authors of the study and Chief Scientific Officer of HerbalScience Group LLC, a Naples, Florida, and Singapore-based company dedicated to applying advanced science and technology to the production of botanical drugs and nutraceuticals.

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