Cinnamon, the often unappreciated ingredient of apple pie and hot cider, may contain molecules that lower blood sugar and an Iowa State professor thinks it may yield treatments for some forms of diabetes.

Dr. Don Graves, an ISU professor of biochemistry and biophysics, and Dr. Richard Anderson of the USDA Human Nutrition Research Center in Beltsville, Md., have been studying the biochemistry of cinnamon in hopes that it will answer questions about sugar metabolism in animals and humans.

In 1989, Anderson discovered that several herbs, including cinnamon, increased the uptake of sugar by fat cells in rats. Of all the spices tested, cinnamon was the most effective in helping fat cells take up sugar.

Anderson began to look closely at the effects of cinnamon about four years ago while doing a human study on the dietary effects of chromium.

Graves was aware of Anderson’s research and became interested in studying cinnamon.

Graves is trying to identify the components in cinnamon that are responsible for its effects on insulin biochemistry. Graves uses mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometry facilities at Iowa State to analyze the molecular structure of the active components in cinnamon extracts provided by Anderson.

“[Graves and I] were talking about some of the enzymes that he works with,” Anderson said. “He works on insulin function, and since many of these extracts have large effects on insulin activity, it was logical to test them on some of his systems to see if they worked. As it turns out, they worked very well. It was doing exactly what we hoped it would do.”

Research by Graves has indicated that the active molecules in cinnamon seem to act by turning on the same biochemical machinery in cells that insulin turns on, suggesting that it may offer treatments for a type of diabetes called non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus.

Anderson said he has heard from several diabetics who have started taking cinnamon as a part of their diet. Most diabetics monitor their blood sugar daily and some have found that their blood glucose levels decrease after eating cinnamon.

“There haven’t been any really good studies,” Anderson said, “but we have done some small studies that show that the people who have the highest blood sugar improve the most.”

The exact nature of the chemicals involved has not been determined yet because purification of the cinnamon extracts has been difficult. Isolated compounds are unstable and degrade quickly, Graves said. Also, some results have led Graves to think that there may be more than one active component in cinnamon.

“The compounds are unstable, and that’s a problem,” Graves said. “[Anderson] is still working on it, and they have improved their methodology. We are hoping that they will give us some better fractions. Then we will do the physical characterization of the structures. We’ve got some better equipment at ISU than they have, so we are doing the structural analyses and the enzyme assays.”

Graves said he wants to determine what the compounds are and how they work in the cell. The next step will be to see whether the compounds can be used for treating diabetes.