Turmeric – Curecumin?

The omni present ingredient of Indian cuisine, turmeric, is getting a lot of attention these days. Here’s report on extensive research done on turmeric in an American university.

The researchers state that although turmeric (Curcuma longa; an Indian spice) has been described in Ayurveda, as a treatment for inflammatory diseases and is referred by different names in different cultures, the active principle called curcumin or diferuloylmethane, a yellow pigment present in turmeric (an ingredient in curry powder) has been shown to exhibit numerous activities.

Extensive research over the last half century has revealed several important functions of curcumin, the researchers claim in a review essay scheduled for publication this month in Biochemical Pharmacology. The researchers are Ajay Goel of the Baylor University Medical Center, Dallas, and Ajaikumar B. Kunnumakkara and Bharat B. Aggarwal of The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston. Aggarwal is considered to be the world’s leading authority on curcumin.

The report goes on to reveal a long list of potential therapeutic benefits derived from using up to 12 g of curcumin.

The researchers claim that various preclinical cell-culture and animal studies suggest that curcumin has potential as an antiproliferative, anti-invasive, and antiangiogenic agent; as a mediator of chemoresistance and radioresistance; as a chemopreventive agent; and as a therapeutic agent in wound healing, diabetes, Alzheimer disease, Parkinson disease, cardiovascular disease, pulmonary disease, and arthritis.[turmeric moves from kitchen shelf to clinic]

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Garam Masala and Ayurveda

Vikram Doctor writes about Garam Masala and it’s Ayurvedic significance:

The heat in its name refers to something quite different — the fact that these spices are considered ‘heating’, in the sense of raising body metabolism. This is the reason often given for garam masala’s use in the North, better at keeping people warm in winter, you are told, than chillies which make you perspire and further chill you.

This theory is ascribed to Ayurveda, and is taken as further proof of how much garam masala is part of Indian tradition. But Ayurveda is not the only theory of traditional medicine: there’s also Chinese yin/yang, and the theory of body humours propounded by Greco-Roman physicians like Galen and developed in both Europe and the Middle East (these theories may all have linkages, but they developed independently). [How Garam Masala symbolises India's culinary traditions]