A recent thread has discussed the use of cinnamon as a possible PD therapy.

The active ingredient of cinnamon appears to be its metabolite sodium benzoate [1].

It turns out that sodium benzoate is metabolized from many foods [2]. Wikipedia states:

"[Sodium benzoate] can be produced by reacting sodium hydroxide with benzoic acid. Benzoic acid occurs naturally at low levels in cranberries, prunes, greengage plums, cinnamon, ripe cloves, and apples.

Sodium benzoate is a preservative [2]:

"It is bacteriostatic and fungistatic under acidic conditions. It is most widely used in acidic foods such as salad dressings (vinegar), carbonated drinks (carbonic acid), jams and fruit juices (citric acid), pickles (vinegar), and condiments."

It is available on the internet for about £18/kg.

Sodium benzoate already has pharmaceutical applications [3]:

"Sodium benzoate is used as a treatment for urea cycle disorders due to its ability to bind amino acids... This leads to excretion of these amino acids and a decrease in ammonia levels."

Raised ammonia levels have been implicated in the etiology of PD. There is a discussion of this in the thread "Ammonia and PD?" [4].

Some people claim that sodium benzoate may react "with added vitamin C to make benzene, a cancer-causing substance" [5]. But it has been deemed safe by the FDA.

Reference

[1] "Cinnamon may be used to halt progression of Parkinson's disease, study suggests"
ScienceDaily, July 9, 2014
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0709095257.htm

[2] http://www.meridianstar.co.uk/kilo/sodium-benzoate.html

[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_benzoate

[4] http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/sh...hlight=ammonia

[5] http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/t...ditives?page=3

John

About as far away from human trials as possible, but the title says it all:

"Sodium benzoate exposure downregulates the expression of tyrosine hydroxylase and dopamine transporter in dopaminergic neurons in developing zebrafish."
Chen Q1, Huang NN, Huang JT, Chen S, Fan J, Li C, Xie FK.
Birth Defects Res B Dev Reprod Toxicol. 2009 Apr;86(2):85-91. doi: 10.1002/bdrb.20187.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19294673

The significance of tyrosine hydroxylase is that it catalyses the conversion of tyrosine to levodopa.

The reported result will most likely apply to cinnamon too.

John