Rosemary

Rosemary is a resinous, robust Mediterranean herb with firm needles. Great with roast potatoes, focaccia, beans and stews – cook whole sprigs, then remove them.

What is rosemary? The aromatic herb and the Acciaroli story

Rosemary (Salvia rosmarinus) is more than decoration or the strongly resinous herb scattered over Neapolitan pizzas or next to crispy roast potatoes. This hardy, wild plant with its spiky, needle-like leaves belongs to the large mint family (Lamiaceae), which also includes sage. In ancient Greece, scholars (such as Socrates, as the story goes) wore tightly woven rosemary wreaths around their heads, because they associated the herb with a sharp memory. An interesting anecdote: in the southern Italian hill village of Acciaroli, an unusually large number of people live to over 100; their high local intake of rosemary is one of the things researchers, including teams from the US, are looking into.

Compounds beyond the macros: the aromatic oils

Because you only eat the herb in very small amounts, protein and calories don't matter here. What makes rosemary interesting is in the oily secretion of its leaves:

• Rosmarinic acid: a phenolic compound that slowed the oxidation of fats in lab tests.
• Carnosic acid & carnosol: two plant compounds that, in lab tests, held back fat oxidation and rancidity – in some comparisons more effectively than the synthetic preservatives commonly added to processed meat.

What studies have measured: the brain and grilled meat

Rosemary and memory: what lab and aroma studies found

The messenger substance acetylcholine plays a key role in learning and memory in the hippocampus, and it's broken down by the enzyme acetylcholinesterase. In lab studies, compounds from rosemary inhibited this enzyme and the build-up of beta-amyloid. In a small study in which test groups breathed in the scent of rosemary essential oil, memory and arithmetic test scores were up to almost 75 % higher. These are early findings, mostly from the lab or with essential oil – not from rosemary on your plate.

Rosemary marinades and grilling (HCAs)

A practical tip if you eat meat: when protein such as beef, veal or turkey is seared very hot or grilled over an open flame, compounds called heterocyclic aromatic amines (HCAs) form in the charred parts – research links them with cancer risk. If you marinate the meat with plenty of fresh, chopped rosemary, or leave rosemary sprigs in the marinade for a few hours beforehand, measurements show the fat-soluble, heat-stable carnosic acid from the needles cut the formation of these HCAs by up to almost **90 per cent**.

Using it in the kitchen

Skip the tough, woody, grey-brown rosemary sprigs in a plastic box from the supermarket. Get a living, bushy rosemary plant instead (for the terrace or kitchen windowsill) and snip off the oily, bright green young shoots with scissors whenever you want to cook with it. Chopped, it lifts roast veg, potatoes of every kind and any hearty tomato sauce.