Searching for new drugs by milling through ancient folk pharmacopoeia or by just picking a plant while walking in the woods has a decidedly checkered history. Many well-established therapeutic compounds originated in trees, shrubs, mollusks, even dirt. Aspirin came from willow bark, cholesterol-lowering statins from a mold, and the antimalarial artemisinin from a shrub used in traditional Chinese medicine. Yet after raising $90 million during the 1990s in a much publicized bid to tap indigenous knowledge for new drug leads, Shaman Pharmaceuticals had to lower its sights until it was doing nothing more than selling its products as nutritional supplements before finally shutting its doors for good a few years ago.

Now the trend may be reversing itself again. Recently a number of natural compounds--such as resveratrol from red wine and omega-3 fatty acids from fish oil--have begun to receive close scrutiny because preliminary research suggests they might treat and prevent disease inexpensively with few side effects. Turmeric, an orange-yellow powder from an Asian plant, Curcuma longa, has joined this list. No longer is it just an ingredient in vindaloos and tandooris that, since ancient times, has flavored food and prevented spoilage.

This article was originally published with the title Spice Healer.

9 Comments

1. 1. Sangya 08:46 AM 4/18/08

   Should raw turmeric be given to kids daily for eating-Will it have any adverse effects on them

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2. 2. Swansn 07:13 PM 5/30/08

   There is a line of supplements available from a company called Jiva, using curcumin as a main ingredient. According to research trials conducted and documented over the past decade by medical professionals, curcumin shows great promise in treating various forms of cancer and a multitude of other diseases, including HIV, diabetes, Alzheimer's and arthritis. The research results show, in human and animals models, that curcumin protects the liver, inhibits tumors by stopping precancerous changes within DNA and interferes with enzymes needed for cancer progression, reduces inflammation, fights some infections and blocks toxic substances from reaching body tissues. Curcumin has both antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Inflammation is cited as the precursor to most disease. Please see the following link regarding curcumin history and research for detailed testimonials and test results.

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3. 3. HellaD 06:29 AM 6/26/08

   The Burmese also use turmeric in most of their curries and make a salad dressing with it by heating (generally peanut) oil with a pinch of turmeric and then frying garlic. This makes a delicious and healthy salad oil. It is interesting to see turmeric being specifically put into oil as it is heating since it is a great anti-oxidizer. I love this spice so much! Glad it didn't get patented by greedy corporations.

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4. 4. vinmd 12:45 PM 7/29/08

   I first learnt about the widespread use of Curcurmin- Hulldee at a Vippasnna retreat in India where as part of the condiments available for meals including sugar and salt on the tablewas an open large bowl of Hulldee with a tspoon and a large percentage of the mostly rural people there put 1 spoon in their glass of milk for breakfast.
   When I asked them at the end of the retreat all of them said the same thing "everyone in our village has done that for as long as we know".
   Amazing.
   Maybe it is widely used healthy foods like turmeric and tea and other food ingredients that gave India and China the much larger populations they grew to over thousands of years of use.....Food for thought.

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5. 5. Karen Vaughan 07:45 PM 7/15/09

   Instead of focusing on curcumin, look at turmeric itself which is much safer. In fact if you add 5% black pepper to the turmeric, many effects are comparable to the stronger isolate.

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6. 6. Karen Vaughan 07:46 PM 7/15/09

   Instead of focusing on curcumin, look at turmeric itself which is much safer. In fact if you add 5% black pepper to the turmeric, many effects are comparable to the stronger isolate.

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7. 7. poosta7 12:35 PM 5/26/10

   I learned recently that mustard is yellow because of tumeric. I wonder if hot dog eating baseball fans have less cancer (and other diseases) than beer drinking, popcorn eating football fans.

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8. 8. esteban suarez 11:23 AM 1/27/13

   Mi pregunta: Si la cúrcumina protege el HIGADO tambien combate la enfermedad de la HEPATITIS ?

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9. 9. esteban suarez 11:25 AM 1/27/13

   Mi pregunta: Si la cúrcumina protege el HIGADO tambien combate la enfermedad de la HEPATITIS ?

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