Spice use in food: Properties and benefits

ABSTRACT

Spices are parts of plants that due to their properties are used as colorants, preservatives, or medicine. The uses of spices have been known since long time, and the interest in the potential of spices is remarkable due to the chemical compounds contained in spices, such as phenylpropanoids, terpenes, flavonoids, and anthocyanins. Spices, such as cumin (cuminaldehyde), clove (eugenol), and cinnamon (cinnamaldehyde) among others, are known and studied for their antimicrobial and antioxidant properties due to their main chemical compounds. These spices have the potential to be used as preservatives in many foods namely in processed meat to replace chemical preservatives. Main chemical compounds in spices also confer other properties providing a variety of applications to spices, such as insecticidal, medicines, colorants, and natural flavoring. Spices provide beneficial effects, such as antioxidant activity levels that are comparable to regular chemical antioxidants used so they can be used as a natural alternative to synthetic preservatives. In this review, the main characteristics of spices will be described as well as their chemical properties, different applications of these spices, and the advantages and disadvantages of their use.

KEYWORDS:

• Antioxidant
• antimicrobial
• spices
• colorants
• preservatives
• properties

Disclosure statement

The views or opinions expressed in this paper are those of the authors.

Funding

The authors are sincerely thankful to the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (Discovery Grant 355254), FQRNT (Programme de recherche en partenariat visant le développement d'alternatives santé à l'ajout des nitrites et des nitrates dans les produits carnés) for financial support. The authors specially thank MITACS Globalink program for the prestigious funded internship opportunity given to Miss Jessica Elizabeth De La Torre Torres, which made it possible for her to accomplish this review.