Turmeric
Curcuma; terra merita, Indian saffron
- Known today as
- Curcuma longa, of the ginger family, whose root is deep yellow within.
- Kind
- Plant
- Constituents
- curcumin, demethoxycurcumin, turmerone
- In other databases
- Plants of the World Online search · GBIF search · Wikidata search
Caution. Some turmeric sold in South Asia has been adulterated with lead chromate to brighten its colour.
Turmeric: what was it used for?
In European pharmacy, for jaundice and obstructions of the liver, the yellow root answering the yellow disease; a dye and a spice.
Turmeric: what does modern science say?
Curcumin, its pigment, has been studied in thousands of papers, but it is poorly absorbed and unstable, and a 2017 review concluded that no properly controlled trial had shown it to work.
Pharmacognosy & Toxicology
- Constituents
- Mechanism
- Curcumin reacts with many proteins in the dish but is barely absorbed and quickly cleared.
- Toxic dose
- Gram doses are tolerated; lead chromate adulteration is the real hazard.
- Standing
- A food; no approved medicinal use.
- Nelson, K. M., et al. (2017). Journal of Medicinal Chemistry 60. Verified against its record · doi:10.1021/acs.jmedchem.6b00975
The abstract of each source, beneath its citation. For Club members. About the Club or sign in.
Constituent names open the compound’s record at PubChem, and “ChEMBL” beside a name opens its record at ChEMBL, the European Bioinformatics Institute’s database of bioactive molecules. Where a mechanism line was checked against ChEMBL (ChEMBL 37, read 1 October 2026), the check is shown with the measured value and its source paper, or says plainly that nothing has been measured. Doses are as the references give them, for description only; this is not medical advice. Each source carries the result of its check against Crossref, PubMed, or the authority’s page: see Verification.
Turmeric: what lore surrounds it?
The drug-sellers’ name terra merita, “deserving earth,” is one guess at the origin of the word “turmeric.”
In Their Own Words
Culpeper calls turmeric hot in the third degree, opening obstructions and profitable against the yellow jaundice and cold distempers of the liver and spleen, taken at night in a roasted apple.
“Curcumæ. Of Turmerick, hot in the third degree, opens obstructions, is profitable against the yellow jaundice, and cold distemper of the liver and spleen, half a dram being taken at night going to bed in the pulp of a roasted apple”
Nicholas Culpeper, M.D., The Complete Herbal … to which are now first annexed, the English Physician Enlarged, and Key to Physic, Dispensatory, “Roots”: Curcumae, Of Turmerick. A New Edition. London: Thomas Kelly, 17, Paternoster Row (no year printed); Project Gutenberg eBook #49513. The text, read in part
The 1911 Britannica says turmeric had long been used as a condiment and dyestuff and, to a lesser extent, as a medicine by then obsolete.
“Turmeric has been used from a remote period both as a condiment and as a dyestuff, and to a more limited extent as a medicine (now obsolete).”
Encyclopædia Britannica, eleventh edition: Turmeric, “Turmeric”, vol. 27, p. 474. The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, as transcribed on Wikisource. The text, read in full
Each passage is quoted from the text named, which the press fetched and read, and was checked word for word against a fresh copy of it; the link opens that copy. Passages are given as printed, without the editors’ footnote numbers, and with words broken across lines joined.
Sources
- Pomet, P. (1694). Histoire générale des drogues (English, A Compleat History of Druggs, 1712). Read in part · the text read
- Nelson, K. M., et al. (2017). “The Essential Medicinal Chemistry of Curcumin.” Journal of Medicinal Chemistry 60. Verified against its record · doi:10.1021/acs.jmedchem.6b00975
Verification
- Checked
- October 1, 2026
- Passes
- Every sentence read against its sources, in the pass over the remaining 343 entries
- The Standing line checked against the authority it names (EMA, WHO, FDA, CITES, Commission E)
- Every dated or regulatory claim checked by category across the database
- Sources
- 3 cited: 1 read in part, 2 verified against its record. 2 with the abstract on file.
- Corrections
- None were needed.
What was checked, how, and what was found is set out on the Verification page. A checked source is one whose record was found; it does not make the entry medical advice.
Cite This Entry
Version 1 · first published September 30, 2026
- Chicago
“Turmeric.” In Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1. The Thinking Press, 2026–. Last modified September 30, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/turmeric.
- MLA
“Turmeric.” Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema, version 1, The Thinking Press, 30 Sept. 2026, thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/turmeric. Accessed 8 Oct. 2026.
- APA
Turmeric. (2026, September 30). In B. C. P. Statema (Ed.), Materia medica (Version 1). The Thinking Press. Retrieved October 8, 2026, from https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/turmeric
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See Also
Sharing curcumin
Drawing on the same sources: Pomet, Nelson
Woodlouse · Spermaceti · White hellebore · Thorn apple · Woody nightshade · the bibliography →
Nearby in the alphabet
Turpentine · Turkey tail (banded bracket of dead wood, common worldwide) · Unicorn’s horn (Monodon monoceros) · Truffle · Valerian (Valeriana officinalis) · Troche of agaric (Laricifomes officinalis (syn) · Verbena (Verbena officinalis) · Touch-pieces
Historical description, not medical advice.