Dietary spices in health and diseases: I.

Spices are heterogeneous collections of a wide variety of volatile and non-volatile staple dietary additives. India with its wide climatic conditions and topographical features naturally possesses wide variety of medicinal flora. Spices have a diverse array of natural phytochemicals that have complementary and overlapping actions, including antioxidant effects, modulation of detoxification enzymes, stimulation of immune system, reduction of inflammation, modulation of steroid metabolism and antibacterial and antiviral effects. In the present essay, various studies on effects of different well characterized spices on molecular, cellular, autocrine, paracrine and endocrine mechanisms and their role in neuromodulation, immunoinodulation, anti inflammatory, antioxidant, anti-carcinogenic, antimutagenic and psychoactive phenomena have been reviewed.