What is Turmeric?

Curcuma Longa is a plant (similar to ginger) that with its dried bulbous root, you get turmeric , a spice with multiple properties.

With a characteristic yellow-orange color, turmeric is rich in curcumin , its main active principle, which has powerful antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties . In addition, it stands out for its digestive properties , protecting the intestinal epithelium, promoting liver function, optimizing bile formation and secretion, and with outstanding antiparasitic functions.

What is Turmeric for?

In cooking, it is used as a condiment and coloring, it provides a characteristic aroma and its flavor is mild. It is usually used in combination with other spices. Curry is made up of about 20% turmeric. It is very easy to use in salads, soups, purees, legumes.

In general, its intestinal absorption rate is very low. Pepper is known to increase its intestinal absorption by more than 1000 times, so they are often used together.

Almost all of its properties derive from its antioxidant power .

As an antioxidant, it fights the formation of free radicals, compounds that damage cell membranes and induce unnecessary inflammatory responses or genotoxic alterations.
It is mainly used for treatment of inflammations that do not have reparative purposes . Currently there is also growing research on its effects on the development of cancer, inducing cellular apoptosis (programmed and adequate cell death).

Benefits of Turmeric

At the digestive level, it limits the damage to the epithelia and favors the secretion of protective mucus throughout the digestive tract. It can be useful to control the symptoms of colon / irritable bowel and in the approach of inflammatory bowel disease (Crohn’s, ulcerative colitis).

At the level hepatic , a detoxifying organ in which a large amount of oxidizing substances originate, turmeric has a protective function . Improves liver detoxification processes while promoting the formation and secretion of bile.

Improves cholesterol metabolism . Together with its antioxidant action on blood vessels, it can help prevent the formation of atheroma plaques and prevent arteriosclerosis.

It helps reduce lipid peroxidation processes by which, at the brain level, can reduce neuronal damage . There are studies that value turmeric for the treatment of Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative pathologies.

Its daily use in the kitchen as a spice is recommended to take advantage of all these properties. There are also nutritional supplements with high purity turmeric extracts to address dysfunctions and health disorders in a more powerful and controlled way. They are products of turmeric alone or of turmeric combined with other substances that work synergistically (such as pepper or bromelain), usually to improve their action on inflammatory processes that lack a clear objective of regeneration and repair.

Summary