Curcuma longa (Turmeric)

Question 1

How do you recognise Turmeric?

Answer 1

• A perennial herbaceous plant, up to 1m tall, native to India & S. Asia.
• nBoth the oval leaves & compound flower heads of yellow white flowers arise directly from the roots.
• Has been used for thousands of years in cooking & in ritual, as a dye & as a medicine.
• Known in N. India as haldi, and in S. India as manjal.

Question 2

What are Turmeric ‘s main constituents?

Answer 2

Constituents:
* Carbohydrates (some of which may have medicinal effects).
* Curcumin & curcuminoids – the focus of most research, gives it its yellow/orange colour.
* Essential oil – contains turmerone & other anti-inflammatory substances.
* Resins.

Question 3

What family is Turmeric?

Answer 3

Family: Zingiberaceae.

Question 4

What is Turmeric good for?

Answer 4

Summary: Bitter, warming tonic used internally and externally to improve many things but mainly digestion, carminative, anti-microbial, hepatoprotective - though most people use it for its anti-inflammatory properties for arthritis, spains and so on, and for the bowel. Bendle has used a lot for accidents and operations/ recovery.

Actions:
* Anti-inflammatory.
* Carminative.
* Choleretic/cholagogue.
* Hepatoprotective.
* Antimicrobial and anti fungal.
* Anti-neoplastic - works alongside cancer drugs.
* Anti-oxidant.
* Nephroprotective.
* Neuroprotective.

Applications:
* Rheumatoid and osteoarthritis.
* Tendonitis & sprains.
* Inflammatory & irritable bowel disease & dysbiosis.
* Peptic ulcers.
* Gallstones
* Cancer.
* Fungal infections
* After trauma or operations.

Question 5

What is Turmeric ‘s Latin name?

Answer 5

Curcuma longa

Question 6

What parts of Turmeric do you use?

Answer 6

Parts used: rhizomes.
Rhizomes are used fresh or are boiled, dried and ground to produce powdered turmeric.

Question 7

What safety issues might Turmeric have?

Answer 7

Safe herb.

Question 8

What useful research does Turmeric have?

Answer 8

External links:
* Turmeric, the Golden Spice – a chapter from the 2011 book Herbal Medicine: Biomolecular and Clinical Aspects. Includes 55 of the Sanskrit names applied to turmeric and their English
translations!
* Curcumin: A Review of Its Effects on Human Health from the
journal Foods 2017.
* Clinical effects of curcumin in enhancing cancer therapy: A
systematic review from 2020.”

Question 9

What remedies might you use Turmeric in?

Answer 9

• Dosage – 10- 40ml/week 1:3 tincture.
• Some commercial producers extract in high concentrations of alcohol, which patients may find unpalatable.
• Generally used dry, in powder or as an extract
• Often prescribed in form of capsules – either neat turmeric or standardised for curcumin content. Commercial extracts often combined with black pepper (or piperine)
• Turmeric, Comfrey and St Johns Wort used to be Bendle’s standrad ‘recovery’ formula for people who have been in accidents/ broen bones etc
• Fat soluble so can be used with milk, coconut oil etc
• Bendle gave a mixture of Bogbean and Turmeric to a person with arthritis - 25% Eleuthrococcus (Ginseng), 25% Betula, 25% Curcuma, 25% Menyanthes (Bogbean), all about reducing inflammation and Eleuthrococcus to help resilience. Later changes the mix to include Withania and Hypericum, 20% each of all ingredients.