Glyceryl tribenzoate: A food additive with unique properties to be a substitute for cinnamon.

Cinnamon is a regularly used natural seasoning and flavoring material throughout the world for eras. Recent laboratory studies have demonstrated that oral cinnamon may be beneficial for different neuroinflammatory and neurodegenerative disorders such as multiple sclerosis (MS), Parkinson’s disease (PD), Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and Lewy body diseases (LBD). However, cinnamon’s certain limitations (e.g. unavailability of true Ceylon cinnamon throughout the world, impurities in ground cinnamon, etc.) have initiated an interest among researchers to find an alternate of cinnamon that can potentially deliver the same efficacy in the diseases mentioned above. Glyceryl tribenzoate (GTB) is a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved flavoring ingredient that is used in food and food packaging industries. It has been found that similar to cinnamon, oral GTB is capable of upregulating regulatory T cells and suppressing the autoimmune disease process of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, an animal model of MS. Moreover, both GTB and cinnamon metabolite sodium benzoate (NaB) have the potency to attenuate neurodegenerative pathology in a mouse model of Huntington disease (HD). Here, we have also demonstrated anti-inflammatory property of GTB in astrocytes and macrophages, a property that is also seen with cinnamon and its metabolite sodium benzoate (NaB). Therefore, here, we have made a sincere attempt to discuss the similarities and dissimilarities between cinnamon and GTB with a focus whether GTB has the potential to be considered as a substitute of cinnamon for neuroinflammatory and neurodegenerative disorders.

肉桂是世界各地长期常用的天然调味料和香料。近期的实验室研究表明，口服肉桂可能对不同的神经炎症和神经退行性疾病有益，比如多发性硬化症（MS）、帕金森病（PD）、阿尔茨海默病（AD）和路易体病（LBD）。然而，肉桂存在某些局限性（例如，全世界无法获得真正的锡兰肉桂，肉桂粉中存在杂质等），这引发了研究人员的兴趣，他们试图寻找一种肉桂的替代品，使其在上述疾病中可能具有相同的功效。三苯甲酸甘油酯（GTB）是一种美国食品药品监督管理局（FDA）批准的调味成分，用于食品和食品包装行业。研究发现，与肉桂类似，口服GTB能够上调调节性T细胞，并抑制实验性自身免疫性脑脊髓炎（一种多发性硬化症的动物模型）的自身免疫疾病进程。此外，GTB和肉桂的代谢产物苯甲酸钠（NaB）都有能力减轻亨廷顿病（HD）小鼠模型中的神经退行性病变。在此，我们还证明了GTB在星形胶质细胞和巨噬细胞中的抗炎特性，这一特性在肉桂及其代谢产物苯甲酸钠（NaB）中也能看到。因此，在此我们认真尝试探讨肉桂和GTB之间的相似性和差异性，重点关注GTB是否有潜力被视为治疗神经炎症和神经退行性疾病的肉桂替代品。