Abstract
Cinnamon is a spice commonly used worldwide to flavor desserts, fruits, cereals, breads, and meats. Numerous health benefits have been attributed to its consumption, including the recent suggestion that it may decrease blood glucose levels in people with diabetes. Insulin signaling is an integral pathway regulating the lifespan of laboratory organisms, such as worms, flies, and mice. We posited that if cinnamon truly improved the clinical signs of diabetes in people that it would also act on insulin signaling in laboratory organisms and increase lifespan. We found that cinnamon did extend lifespan in the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster. However, it had no effect on the expression levels of the 3 aging-related Drosophila insulin-like peptides nor did it alter sugar, fat, or soluble protein levels, as would be predicted. In addition, cinnamon exhibited no protective effects in males against oxidative challenges. However, in females it did confer a protective effect against paraquat, but sensitized them to iron. Cinnamon provided no protective effect against desiccation and starvation in females, but sensitized males to both. Interestingly, cinnamon protected both sexes against cold, sensitized both to heat, and elevated HSP70 expression levels. We also found that cinnamon required the insulin receptor substrate to extend lifespan in males, but not females. We conclude that cinnamon does not extend lifespan by improving stress tolerance in general, though it does act, at least in part, through insulin signaling.
Highlights
Cinnamon is a spice commonly used in various cuisines around the world to flavor desserts, fruits, cereals, breads, and meats, and is derived from the bark of trees in the genus Cinnamomum, most commonly, C. cassia
Since cinnamaldehyde and coumarin concentrations were selected based on the highest levels of what is detected in commercial preparations (Woehrlin et al 2010), the lack of a beneficial effect is unlikely to be explained by an insufficient amount, and may explain the slight toxicity of cinnamaldehyde in female flies (Fig. 2D)
We hypothesized that if cinnamon did improve insulin signaling in humans, it may do so in experimental animals, and improve lifespan
Summary
Cinnamon is a spice commonly used in various cuisines around the world to flavor desserts, fruits, cereals, breads, and meats, and is derived from the bark of trees in the genus Cinnamomum, most commonly, C. cassia. Cinnamon and one of its putative active compounds, cinnamaldehyde, have been shown to elevate the expression levels of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARγ) and activate AMP kinase (AMPK) (Sheng et al 2008; Huang et al 2011). These activities mimic the action of the thiazolidinediones and metformin; commonly used antidiabetic drugs (Lee et al 2011; Scarsi et al 2007; Zhou et al 2001; Zhang et al 2007). The potential anti-diabetic effects of cinnamon could possibly occur through the elevation of cellular metabolism
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