It contains a chemical compound, 6 methylsulfinyl hexyl isothiocyanate (6-MSITC), that had previously been associated with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.

There's been a good bit of work with isothiocyanates, notably by Jed Fahey at Hopkins. He's shown it activates the NRF2 pathway. He was using uncooked broccoli sprouts. Many cruciform vegetables have isothiocyanates (mustards like wasabi and horseradish, broccoli, moringa). There were a couple of studies done in China using those sprouts. They showed behavioral improvements of both people 'on the spectrum' and those suffering schizophrenia (different studies, but both used broccoli sprouts). Note that this was done in China, air quality isn't good there, and isothiocyanates work by activating the NRF2 pathway, which causes air pollutants like benzene to be excreted - so it might just be countering inflammation caused by air pollution. If you smoke, benzene is one of the byproducts you’re getting alongside nicotine or THC. Just sayin’.

If you're concerned that you're not getting 'real' wasabi, horseradish (a mustard like wasabi) also has an isothiocyanate. Possibly interestingly, the isothiocyanate in horseradish has been shown to be an antifungal and an antibacterial (that works on MRSA -!-). Wasabi might as well, but horseradish (and mustards in general — excepting wasabi that’s a nightmare to grow) is relatively cheap.

Oh, and if you’re still with me (putting pedant hat on) none of these actually have isothiocyanates; instead they have a glucosinolate and myrosinase; the isothiocyanate is created when the two are combined when cells are crushed. Myrosinase is temperature sensitive. Cook it and it’s gone. My ‘hack’ is to put stone ground mustard on lightly cooked market-stage broccoli so as to add the myrosinase back in — and I like mustard. :-)