Human Immunity And Rasam: What We Know And Don’t

In 2015, the Nobel Prize for medicine was shared by three people, of whom Youyou Tu attracted high attention.

Neither a ‘doctor’ and nor an academic PhD, her research was in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM).

In the early 1970s, she isolated an anti-malarial principle artemisinin from a well-known Chinese herb, sweet wormwood, or Artemisia annua.

Now, in 2020, there is a chance that a culinary delight from traditional Hindu culture can play a role in effecting a food-based resistance to the spread of COVID-19 mortality rate by boosting the resistance of the body.

Given the fact that the presence of background diseases along with the age-factor increases the chances of COVID-19 fatality, a boost in immunity is important in battling the viral epidemic.

A study in 2014 discussing the medicinal values of various southern Indian traditional food items has pointed out that like all things Indic, rasam also comes in quite a number of varied forms, each with their own medicinal valuer

Traditional medical systems also fortify the rasam against microbial diseases with local herbal ingredients.

Studies by researchers from the department of biotechnology, SRM University and National Institute of Siddha, Chennai, reveal that 'Thaaleesaadhi chooranam', a polyherbal formulation prepared from 23 different herbs is mixed with rasam and given to people to build in them resistance against microbial infections.

Professor Agilandeswari Devarajan of the Department of Pharmaceutics, Hillside College of Pharmacy and Research Centre, Bengaluru, has been studying this delicacy for quite some time along with researcher Mohan Maruga Raja of PRIST University, Thanjavur.

The study after describing the various common individual components of the rasam then points to an important fact - the processing factor

This study published in the peer-reviewed journal 'Pharmacognosy Reviews' in 2017 says that a study of rasam with respect to these newly formed chemicals would reveal the following:

-the structural and functional features of these newly formed chemicals in the context of body's physiology and biochemistry;

-the same in the context of the origin and development of diseases;

-how these new entities emerging out of rasam interact with them;

-and interaction between organic and inorganic constituents.