Turmeric is one of nature's most powerful healers. The active ingredient in turmeric is curcumin. Tumeric has been used for over 2500 years in India, where it was most likely first used as a dye.
Long known for its anti-inflammatory properties, recent research has revealed that turmeric is a natural wonder, proving beneficial in the treatment of many different health conditions from cancer to Alzheimer's disease.
In some languages, the names of turmeric just mean "yellow root". English (turmeric) derives from the French terre-mérite meaning "meritorious earth" probably because ground turmeric resembles mineral pigments (ocher). Turmeric was used in Biblical times as a perfume as well as a spice. Some say it came into use in the West through the sun-
worshippers of Persia when their supply of saffron ran out.
worshippers of Persia when their supply of saffron ran out.
Turmeric held a place of honor in India's traditional Ayurvedic medicine. A symbol of prosperity, it was considered a cleansing herb for the whole body. Medically, it was used as a digestive aid and treatment for fever, infections, dysentery, arthritis, and jaundice and other liver problems. In Hindu ceremony it represents fertility.
Traditional Chinese physicians also used turmeric to treat liver and gallbladder problems, stop bleeding, and treat chest congestion and menstrual discomforts.
Turmeric is a choleretic, an agent that stimulates the liver to increase its production of bile. This yellow brown or green fluid helps emulsify fats in your duodenum and increases peristalsis, the rhythmic contractions that move food through your gastrointestinal tract.
Turmeric is also a cholagogue, an agent that stimulates the gallbladder and biliary duct to discharge bile and increases your body's excretion of cholesterol.
The herb is prescribed as a tea or infusion. In traditional Ayurvedic medicine, it is mixed with milk and taken before bed to reduce inflammation and to help with irritating coughs.
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