Coriander and muscle loss in arthritic rats
What it found
In rats with arthritis, coriander leaf powder slightly restored lost muscle and partly reversed changes in muscle proteins.
The work was done in animals, not people.
What they found
Animal and lab studies
Muscle weight
Rats with arthritis lost a significant amount of gastrocnemius muscle weight after 5 days. Rats given coriander showed a modest but significant improvement in muscle weight.
Swelling and inflammation
Arthritic rats had more swelling in the lower leg and higher blood levels of MMP3 and TNFα, two markers of inflammation. Coriander treatment significantly reduced both the swelling and these markers.
Energy metabolism in muscle
Arthritis reduced proteins involved in energy production, including carbon metabolism, the TCA cycle, and oxidative phosphorylation. Coriander partly restored many of these proteins.
Muscle fibre type
Arthritis increased proteins typical of fast-twitch muscle fibres and decreased proteins typical of slow-twitch fibres. Coriander treatment reversed these changes, lowering fast-twitch proteins and raising slow-twitch ones.
What the authors conclude
“Therefore, coriander could be a promising functional food and/or complementary therapy for patients with RA against cachexia.”
Also in their conclusions
- They say coriander could be a promising functional food or complementary therapy for people with rheumatoid arthritis to help against cachexia.
- They recommend that interventions should be applied early, during the precachexia stage, rather than waiting until cachexia occurs.
- They believe coriander could be an effective countermeasure for alleviating skeletal muscle disorders and slowing cachexia in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.
How it was done
Up to two-thirds of people with rheumatoid arthritis lose muscle mass, and there is no standard treatment. The authors wanted to see if coriander could help in the early stage before obvious wasting.
They fed 8-week-old male rats a diet with or without 2% coriander leaf powder for 14 days, then injected the arthritis-inducing agent CFA into the paw. They studied the rats for 5 more days and analysed the gastrocnemius muscle proteins.
What it can’t tell you
- This was a study in rats, so it cannot show what coriander would do in people with rheumatoid arthritis.
- The rats were given a specific dose of coriander leaf powder for a short time, and the long-term effects are not known.
Who paid
- Funding
- Funded by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (from the PubMed record).
- Conflicts
- The authors declare no conflict of interest.
- Authors work at
- The University of Tokyo, Japan; Karolinska Institutet, Sweden; Keio University, Japan
The paper
- Title
- Ameliorating Effects of Coriander on Gastrocnemius Muscles Undergoing Precachexia in a Rat Model of Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Proteomics Analysis
- Type
- Study
- Evidence
- Animals and lab studies
- Summarised from
- Full text
- Licence
- CC BY. Words in quotation marks are the authors’; the rest is our summary.
- Cite
- Jia H, Wen Y, Aw W, Saito K, Kato H (2021). Ameliorating Effects of Coriander on Gastrocnemius Muscles Undergoing Precachexia in a Rat Model of Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Proteomics Analysis. Nutrients. doi:10.3390/nu13114041Free full textPubMed 34836295DOI
Summary written 30 Sep 2026. Check it against the paper before it changes what you eat. How we summarise papers · Report an error