From Phytochemicals to Recipes: Health Indications and Culinary Uses of Herbs and Spices

TL;DR

This study uses a network-based approach to analyze the phytochemicals in herbs and spices, uncovering known and novel health-related associations, and proposes a method to optimize spice combinations for targeted health benefits.

Contribution

It introduces a systematic network approach to link phytochemicals with health indications and develops an algorithm for selecting minimal spice sets for specific health conditions.

Findings

Rediscovered 40% known phytochemical-health relationships

Predicted 20% novel associations with high confidence

Characterized regional cuisine's health coverage and potential expansion

Abstract

Herbs and spices each contain about 3000 phytochemicals on average and there is much traditional knowledge on their health benefits. However, there is a lack of systematic study to understand the relationship among herbs and spices, their phytochemical constituents, their potential health benefits, and their usage in regional cuisines. Here we use a network-based approach to elucidate established relationships and predict novel associations between the phytochemicals present in herbs and spices with health indications. Our top 100 inferred indication-phytochemical relationships rediscover 40% known relationships and 20% that have been inferred via gene-chemical interactions with high confidence. The remaining 40% are hypotheses generated in a principled way for further experimental investigations. We also develop an algorithm to find the minimum set of spices needed to cover a target group of health conditions. Drawing on spice usage patterns in several regional Indian cuisines, and a copy-mutate model for regional cuisine evolution, we characterize the spectrum of health conditions covered by existing regional cuisines. The spectrum of health conditions can expand through the nationalization/globalization of culinary practice.