Ghee: the much maligned cooking medium, now slowly reclaiming its therapeutic reputation

Abstract

<p>Ghee or clarified butter has been gloriously extolled for its virtues in Ancient Indian Medical Systems. For thousands of years, ghee was the cooking medium of choice in North Indian homes, and was also severally used as a drug carrier for delivering phytonutrients and lipid-soluble phytochemicals from herbs. The onset of cardio-vascular diseases in the industrial era brought the focus on cholesterol and saturated fatty acids as causative agents, and led to the sudden and dramatic decline in the use of ghee in Indian homes, beginning 1970s. The recent removal of the daily restrictions imposed on cholesterol by the FDA has reversed the derogatory narrative against cholesterol and cholesterol-rich fats like ghee. There is need to study the various properties of Ghee in a new light, including its role as a carrier for hydrophobic phyto-nutraceuticals and also as a cardio-protective agent.</p>