Health
Potential health benefits of tarragon, including improved digestion, according to expert
Tarragon is a herb generally used for culinary purposes but can also be used in herbal remedies.
There are several potential health benefits that could come from incorporating tarragon into your diet, such as aiding digestion and balancing the immune system, Jenna Volpe, a Texas-based registered dietitian and herbalist, told Fox News Digital in a phone call.
The herb makes for an easy addition to your diet with a large array of dishes it could be incorporated into, including a chicken or fish meal. It can also be used as an ingredient in dressing and can even be incorporated into an herbal tea.
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Learn more about the potential health benefits of tarragon below.
- Could help stimulate digestion
- Can help with immune system balance
- Can be used against fungal infection
Tarragon is a herb part of the Artemisia species and is often used in food dishes as well as herbal remedies. (iStock)
1. Could help stimulate digestion
Adding tarragon to your food can help to stimulate digestion in the body.
“Most of the benefits are anti-inflammatory,” Volpe said of tarragon.
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“I would say it stimulates digestion because it’s bitter, and it’s aromatic, and so it has a lot of those essential oils,” Volpe said.
“Anything bitter tends to stimulate digestive secretion.”
2. Can help with immune system balance
Tarragon can also stimulate immune balancing activity, which is called “immunomodulating activity,” according to Volpe.
In 2017, a study done on mice was published that tested tarragon’s potential connection to immune system balance.
In the study, mice were given tarragon extract for 21 consecutive days.
Tarragon is easy to incorporate into your diet as an ingredient regularly used in various protein dishes as well as delicious dressings. (iStock)
The conclusion was that tarragon could be used to adjust the immune system because of its ability to “inhibit pro-inflammatory cytokines and induce anti-inflammatory macrophages,” according to the study published in Avicenna Journal of Phytomedicine.
3. Can be used against fungal infection
There are millions of types of fungi, but only a few hundred of those cause sickness in humans, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The fungi range in severity for humans.
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There are more than 1 billion people on a worldwide scale who get fungal infections every year, according to the source.
Tarragon is one of many herbs that contains properties that could help fight against fungal infection.
An expert spoke with Fox News Digital about the antifungal properties of tarragon. (iStock)
“[It’s] antibacterial, antifungal, antiprotozoal, which is anti-worms,” Volpe told Fox News Digital.
Many Artemisia herbs share antiparasitic properties, Volpe said.
“A lot of the Artemisia types of herbs that come from the Artemisia species tend to be antiparasitic, which is really interesting,” said Volpe.