Rosemary may help fight COVID-19, other inflammatory diseases like Alzheimer’s

quote:

---

LA JOLLA, Calif. — A compound found in the medicinal and culinary herb rosemary may prove useful in the fight against COVID-19, according to a team from the Scripps Research Institute. Scientists report that carnosic acid, a substance in the tasty herb, may pack a one-two punch against SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing COVID.

The compound is capable of impeding interactions between the SARS-CoV-2 outer “spike” protein and the body’s receptor protein (ACE2). Coronavirus essentially uses the ACE2 receptor as an entry point into human cells.

Moreover, the research team also collected additional evidence suggesting carnosic acid also offers additional health benefits, as it can inhibit a powerful inflammatory pathway. This pathway just happens to also be quite active in severe COVID-19 cases, as well as various other diseases such as Alzheimer’s.

“We think that carnosic acid, or some optimized derivative, is worth investigating as a potentially cheap, safe, and effective treatment for COVID-19 and some other inflammation-related disorders,” says study senior author Stuart Lipton, MD, PhD, Professor and Step Family Foundation Endowed Chair in the Department of Molecular Medicine and founding co-director of the Neurodegeneration New Medicines Center at Scripps Research, in a media release.

---