New scientific research confirms what alternative Asian healers have known for centuries: Curcumin — a key ingredient in the spice turmeric, used in traditional curry dishes — has potent anti-inflammatory properties that boost health in a variety of ways.
 

Curcumin — long used in Ayurvedic medicine treatments for such ailments as allergies, diabetes, and ulcers — has become the focus of many scientific studies, with researchers investigating its effects on disorders ranging from colon cancer to osteoarthritis.
 

The latest study, by Ohio State University scientists, found that curcumin’s biological effects benefit the entire body and could be useful both therapeutically and as a daily supplement to combat disease.
 

“There’s a reason why this compound has been used for hundreds of years in Eastern medicine. And this study suggests that we have identified a better and more effective way to deliver curcumin and know what diseases to use it for so that we can take advantage of its anti-inflammatory power,” said lead researcher Nicholas Young, a postdoctoral researcher in rheumatology and immunology at Ohio State.
 

For the new study, published in the Public Library of Science journal PLOS ONE, the researchers mixed curcumin powder with castor oil and polyethylene glycol to produce a salad dressing-like fluid that is easily absorbed by the gut to enter the bloodstream and tissues.
 

Feeding mice this curcumin-based drug shut down an acute inflammatory reactions linked to such health problems as heart disease and obesity.
 

 “We envision that this nutraceutical could be used one day both as a daily supplement to help prevent certain diseases and as a therapeutic drug to help combat the bad inflammation observed in many diseases,” Young said. “The distinction will then be in the amount given – perhaps a low dose for daily prevention and higher doses for disease suppression.”
 

The work was funded, in part, by the National Institutes of Health.