• 10/14/2004
  • Dinesh C Sharma
  • Press Information Bujreau, Government of India

Turmeric is more than just another spice that makes up the delectable India curry famous the world over. A few years back, turmeric hit the headlines in global media when an American patent relating to one of its many medicinal properties was revoked. The patent was granted for wound healing properties of turmeric. Indian authorities challenged it on the grounds that this attribute of turmeric was part of common knowledge in India and was not something novel that can be protected by a patent. The documents that were furnished to the patent office included some of the ancient Ayurvedic texts. This illustrates the significance of turmeric and important qualities that it has been known for centuries now.

It is part of Indian folklore and has been used for hundreds of years as a beauty aid as well as grandma’s cure for common ailments like coughs and colds, in addition to acting as a healing agent. In fact, even now turmeric paste is used to beautify brides in ceremonies preceding Indian marriages. Turmeric is claimed to be an important ingredient of many fairness creams available in the market.

India is the largest producer of turmeric in the world since nearly 80 per cent of its global production happens in the country. In terms of area, it occupies 60 per cent of the total area under spice and condiment production in the country. Haldi is also grown extensively in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Thailand, China, Taiwan as well as in Haiti, Jamaica and Peru.

Besides giving flavour, colour and taste to food, spices are known to aid in digestion and possess therapeutic value for treating chronic disorders such as arthritis, bronchial asthma, wound healing, dyspepsia besides heart and neurological disorders. Spices and plants contain substances known as phytochemicals that are basically meant for plant protection but are now being considered almost akin to vitamins and are considered highly beneficial for human beings. It is because of these chemicals that spices have moved out from grandma’s home remedy kits to test tubes of modern scientists.

New medical knowledge is being generated on these ancient commodities called spices. The medicinal elements of spices are now sought to be reinforced through scientific research. Recent studies on foods, nutrition and chronic diseases suggest that changing diets and dietary habits in order to achieve optimum nutrition and phytonutrients can minimize the risk of chronic disorders. Therefore, experts believe that traditional foods can be a cost-effective and sustainable method to reduce risks of both deficiency diseases as well as diet-related chronic disorders.

Turmeric belongs to the same family as ginger and is similar in looks in its raw form. For cooking purposes, turmeric is ground and used. Curcuma longa Linn or turmeric consists of essential oils, fatty oils, micronutrients in small quantities and Curcumin, the main coloring component of the turmeric. Curcumin has a wide range of pharmacological effects. “We have evaluated its preventive effects on pre-cancer and cancer and examined its role as an antioxidant, anti-carcinogenic and anti-tumorigenic agent”, said Dr Kamala Krishnaswamy, leading nutrition scientist and former director, National Institute of Nutrition, Hyderabad.

In one such important study, turmeric has been found to be a good chemo-preventive agent effective at all stages of cancer – from initiation to progression. The spice was tested in animals using several methodologies to assess its cancer preventing profile. Since the incidence of oral cancer is very high in the country, scientists decided to see if turmeric could prevent or regress mouth cancers. Dr Krishnaswamy said turmeric appears to significantly inhibit cellular changes that lead to formation of malignancies. Several studies earlier showed that curcumin can inhibit the tumors at sites such as breast, skin, forestomach, lungs, but in higher concentrations. “Garlic, onions and mustard seeds have similar anti-carcinogenic potential”, she pointed out.

Dr Krishnaswamy conducted a clinical trial in a community in Andhra Pradesh where reverse smoking is prevalent. The members of this community are at a high risk of suffering from palatal cancers. A dose of one gram of turmeric per day was administered for a period of nine months. The results, she said, suggest that it had a significant impact on the regression of precancerous lesions and also impacted on genotoxic damage. Separate studies done at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, have shown that priming lung cancer cells with curcumin enhances the efficacy of conventional and newer chemotherapeutic drugs in use for the treatment of lung cancer.

Other medicinal indications of turmeric that have been scientifically tested are its ability to decrease the load of carcinogens on the body, its anti-oxidant activity and capability to repair damage caused to DNA due to smoking. One recent study has even found that curcumin can also retard the process of development of cataract, by delaying cataract formation in galactose induced cataracts in rats. Turmeric and curcumin were found to increase detoxifying enzymes in the liver and intestinal mucosa and decrease mutations and tumor formation in animal studies.

American scientists too are researching on curcumin’s role as a natural anti-inflammatory compound. Dr Amin A. Nanji from the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center, Philadelphia, has shown that curcumin inhibits alcohol-induced liver injury. He is now focusing on whether such a compound would be useful in diseases such as non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, a condition that can lead to liver cirrhosis and liver cancer.

Since turmeric in the Indian culinary practices is usually either boiled or fried, Dr Krishnaswamy said it has been found that cooking at high temperatures is unlikely to destroy medicinal attributes of turmeric. Hence, there is no denying in the fact that ‘one spoon of haldi (turmeric) a day can keep cancers away’.