Separating turmeric fact from fiction
Thousands of papers have been published on curcumin’s healing potential, but its usefulness is not yet proven, finds Andy Extance
The wide-ranging potential benefits of turmeric – including lowering the risk of heart disease and cancer – have broken through to the mainstream, with coffee shops selling turmeric lattes and turmeric products advertised in newspapers. But are these claims realistic? Some now argue that it’s leaving its characteristic bright orange mark on the scientific literature: the colour of turmeric and curcumin are among many problematic properties, potentially causing false positives in drug screening tests that measure fluorescence. So far curcumin has racked up reports of over 300 different types of biological activity. That makes it the 10th most promiscuous molecule known to science – with none of that top 10 yet successfully becoming a drug lead.