Turmeric

Turmeric
Curcuma longa
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae Order: Zingiberales Family: Zingiberaceae Genus: Curcuma Species: C. longa
Binomial name
Curcuma longa Linnaeus

Turmeric is the common name for a herbaceous perennial plant, Curcuma longa, of the ginger family Zingiberaceae, characterized by a tuberous rhizome that is short, thick, tapered, and somewhat fleshy; lance-like, elongated leaves on erect, thick stems that extend upward directly from the rhizome; and pale yellow flowers appearing in a cylindrical cone that also arises from the rhizome, with the flowers partially protected by leaf sheaths (bracteoles). The name turmeric also is used for the dried, powdered rhizome that is popular as a spice and food color, as well as used medicinally. Turmeric, which often is misspelled (or pronounced) as "tumeric," is native to tropical South Asia and grows in warm, humid climates; today it is widely cultivated in India and the Caribbean, as well as such countries as Sri Lanka and Fiji.

bitter, pungent flavor intense yellow-orange color used in cooking since 600 B.C.E.

mainly to add flavor and color almost always used in curry preparations in East Indian cooking gives bright yellow color to American-style prepared mustard

deep yelow dye for fabrics

widely cultivated for its as spice and for medicinal uses

spice and yellow dye (orange-red or reddish borwn natural die

speices intense yellow-orange color speices with musky odor and pungent bitter taste (flavor) used in curray and color of mustard, butter, cheese, bright yellow color of American style mustard

Overview and description

Zingiberaceae, the flowering plant family to which turmeric bleongs, is known as the "ginger family," and contains aromatic perennial herbs with creeping horizontal or tuberous rhizomes. Members of the family have distichous leaves with basal sheaths that overlap to form a pseudostem. Flowers are hermaphroditic, usually strongly zygomorphic, in determinate cymose inflorescences, and subtended by conspicuous, spirally arranged bracts. The perianth is comprised of two whorls, a fused tubular calyx, and a tubular corolla with one lobe larger than the other two. Flowers typically have two of their stamenoids (sterile stamens) fused to form a petaloid lip, and have only one fertile stamen. The ovary is inferior and topped by two nectaries; the stigma is funnel-shaped.

Turmeric (Curcuma longa) is characterized by its tuberous rhizome. A rhizome is a characteristically horizontal stem of a plant that is usually found underground, often sending out roots and shoots from its nodes. A tuber is an enlarged, fleshy, generally underground stem of certain seed plants, in which the typical stem parts are represented and which often serves as an organ of food storage and/or reproduction. The rhizome of turmeric is fleshy, oblong, tapered at either end, and from 5 to 10 centimeters (2-3 inches) in length and about 2.5 centimeters (1 inch) wide (Schonbeck and Frey 2005). The exterior can be yellow, tan, or olive-green colored, while the interior, which is hard and firm, is either orange-brown or deeply rust-colored, with transverse resinous parallel rings (Schonbeck and Frey 2005). The dense root breaks into a powder that is lemon yellow in color (Grieve and Leyel 1992).

Turmeric also is characterized by its leaves and flowers. The leaves extend upward, with each leaf on an individual stem extending up directly from the rhizome. The leaves are elongated, lance-shaped, tapered (narrower) at each end, deep green and lustrous, and can be 60 centimeters in length (2 feet). The flowers appear spirally arranged around a cylindrical cone on the end of a stalk, partially protected by leaf sheaths (bracteoles—small modified or specialized leaves). This spike of flowers also arises directly from the rootstock (rhizome). Flowers are pale yellow in color and grow in groupings of three to five (Schonbeck and Frey 2005).

Turmeric also is known as kunyit (Indonesian and Malay), Besar (Nepali), haldi (Hindi), arishina (Kannada), pasupu (Telugu), or manjal(Tamil) in Asian countries. In Assamese, it is called Halodhi. In Hawaiì, it is called `Olena. In medieval Europe, turmeric became known as Indian Saffron, since it is widely used as an alternative to far more expensive saffron spice.

Cultivation and preparation

Native to tropical South Asia, turmeric thrives in warm, humid climates, generally with temperatures above 60°F (29.8°C) for best growth (Schonbeck and Frey 2005), and a considerable amount of annual rainfall. Among areas that turmeric is cultivated are India, Sri Lanka, East Indies, Fiji, and Queensland, Australia (Schonbeck and Frey 2005), as well as the Caribbean in the Western Hemisphere. Sangli, a town in the southern part of the Indian state of Maharashtra, is perhaps the largest and most important trading center for turmeric in Asia.

Plants are gathered annually for their rhizomes, and re-seeded from some of those rhizomes in the following season. The rhizomes are boiled for several hours and then dried in hot ovens, after which they are ground into a deep orange-yellow powder. The powder from the pulverized rhizome can be dissolved in water or alcohol; for the medicinal tincture it usually is dissolved in boiling alcohol (Schonbeck and Frey 2005).

Usage

File:Curcumin keto form.png

Curcumin Keto form

File:Curcumin.png

Curcumin Enol form

commonly used as a spice in curries and other South Asian and Middle Eastern cuisine, for dyeing, and to impart color to mustard condiments.  Its active ingredient is curcumin and it has an earthy, bitter, peppery flavor and a mustardy smell. 

Turmeric contains up to 5% essential oils and up to 3% curcumin, a polyphenol. It is the active substance of turmeric and it is also known as C.I. 75300, or Natural Yellow 3. The systematic chemical name is (1E,6E)-1,7-bis(4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl)-1,6-heptadiene-3,5-dione.

It can exist at least in two tautomeric forms, keto and enol. The keto form is preferred in solid phase and the enol form in solution.

Culinary uses

Turmeric powder is used extensively in Indian cuisine.

File:Curcuma.JPG

Commercially packaged turmeric powder

In non-Indian recipes, turmeric is sometimes used as a coloring agent. It has found application in canned beverages, baked products, dairy products, ice cream, yogurt, yellow cakes, orange juice, biscuits, popcorn color, sweets, cake icings, cereals, sauces, gelatins, etc. It is a significant ingredient in most commercial curry powders.

Turmeric (coded as E100 when used as a food additive) is used to protect food products from sunlight. The oleoresin is used for oil-containing products. The curcumin/polysorbate solution or curcumin powder dissolved in alcohol is used for water containing products. Over-coloring, such as in pickles, relishes and mustard, is sometimes used to compensate for fading.

In combination with annatto (E160b), turmeric has been used to color cheeses, yogurt, dry mixes, salad dressings, winter butter and margarine. Turmeric is also used to give a yellow color to some prepared mustards, canned chicken broths and other foods (often as a much cheaper replacement for saffron).

Turmeric is widely used as a spice in South Asian and Middle Eastern cooking. Momos (Nepali meat dumplings), a traditional dish in South Asia, are spiced with turmeric.

Medicinal uses

File:100 1143.jpg

Turmeric plant

In Ayurvedic medicine, turmeric is thought to have many medicinal properties and many in India use it as a readily available antiseptic for cuts, burns and bruises. Practitioners of Ayurvedic medicine say it has fluoride which is thought to be essential for teeth. It is also used as an antibacterial agent.

It is taken in some Asian countries as a dietary supplement, which allegedly helps with stomach problems and other ailments. It is popular as a tea in Okinawa, Japan. It is currently being investigated for possible benefits in Alzheimer's disease, cancer and liver disorders.

Turmeric rhizome

It is only in recent years that Western scientists have increasingly recognised the medicinal properties of turmeric. According to a 2005 article in the Wall Street Journal titled, "Common Indian Spice Stirs Hope," research activity into curcumin, the active ingredient in turmeric, is exploding. Two hundred and fifty-six curcumin papers were published in the past year according to a search of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Supplement sales have increased 35% from 2004, and the U.S. National Institutes of Health has four clinical trials underway to study curcumin treatment for pancreatic cancer, multiple myeloma, Alzheimer's, and colorectal cancer.

A 2004 UCLA-Veterans Affairs study involving genetically altered mice suggests that curcumin, the active ingredient in turmeric, might inhibit the accumulation of destructive beta amyloids in the brains of Alzheimer's disease patients and also break up existing plaques. "Curcumin has been used for thousands of years as a safe anti-inflammatory in a variety of ailments as part of Indian traditional medicine," Gregory Cole, Professor of medicine and neurology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA said.

Curcumin has been identified as a powerful MAO-A inhibitor, at doses above 150 mg/kg. MAO-B inhibition was not present until doses escalate above 550mg/kg.

Another 2004 study conducted at Yale University involved oral administration of curcumin to mice homozygous for the most common allele implicated in cystic fibrosis. Treatment with curcumin restored physiologically-relevant levels of protein function.

Anti-tumoral effects against melanoma cells have been demonstrated.

A recent study involving mice has shown that turmeric slows the spread of breast cancer into lungs and other body parts. Turmeric also enhances the effect of taxol in reducing metastasis of breast cancer.

Curcumin is also thought to be an antinociceptive agent (pain reliever). In the November 2006 issue of Arthritis & Rheumatism, a study was published that showed the effectiveness of turmeric in the reduction of joint inflammation, and recommended clinical trials as a possible treatment for the alleviation of arthritis symptoms. It is thought to work as a natural inhibitor of the cox-2 enzyme, and has been shown effective in animal models for neuropathic pain secondary to diabetes, among others.

Presenting their findings at the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in San Francisco in June 2008, researchers discovered that turmeric-treated mice were less susceptible to developing type 2 diabetes, based on their blood glucose levels, and glucose and insulin tolerance tests. They also discovered that turmeric-fed obese mice showed significantly reduced inflammation in fat tissue and liver compared to controls. They speculate that curcumin in the turmeric lessens insulin resistance and prevents type 2 diabetes in these mouse models by dampening the inflammatory response provoked by obesity.

Cosmetics

{{#invoke:Message box|ambox}} Turmeric is currently used in the formulation of some sunscreens. Turmeric paste is used by some Indian women to keep them free of superfluous hair. Turmeric paste is applied to bride and groom before marriage in some places of India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, where it is believed turmeric gives glow to skin and keeps some harmful bacteria away from the body.

The government of Thailand is funding a project to extract and isolate tetrahydrocurcuminoids (THC) from turmeric. THCs (not to be confused with tetrahydrocannabinol, also known as THC) are colorless compounds that might have antioxidant and skin-lightening properties and might be used to treat skin inflammations, making these compounds useful in cosmetics formulations.

Dye

Turmeric makes a poor fabric dye as it is not very lightfast (the degree to which a dye resists fading due to light exposure). However, turmeric is commonly used in Indian clothing, such as saris.

Gardening

Turmeric can also be used to deter ants. The exact reasons why turmeric repels ants is unknown, but anecdotal evidence suggests it works. ^{[citation needed]}

International naming

• हरिद्रा (haridrā) or वरवर्णिनी (varavarṇinī) in Sanskrit.
• हल्दी (haldi)and (be-sar) in Nepali
• पालु (paa lu) in Nepal Bhasa
• ಅರಿಶಿಣ (arishina) in Kannada
• हळद (halad) in Marathi
• Haldi in Hindi and Urdu.
• Haldar in Gujarati
• ਹਲਦੀ (Haldi) in Punjabi.
• Haruut in Somali
• Holdi or Holud in Bengali.
• আন্দি (andi) in Bishnupriya Manipuri
• மஞ்சள் (manchal, literal: Yellow) in Tamil.
• పసుపు (pasupu) in Telugu.
• 강황 (kang hwang) in Korean.
• 姜黄 (jiang huang, literal: "Ginger Yellow") in Chinese.
• Nghệ in Vietnamese.
• Lmeat in Khmer.
• زردچوبه (zardchubeh) in Persian.
• ‘Ōlena in Hawaiian
• Gelbwurz (literal: Yellow Root) or Kurkuma in German.
• Gurkemeje in Danish.
• Gurkemeie in Norwegian.
• Kurkuma or Japonský šafrán (literal: Japanese Safron) in Czech.
• Kunyit in Indonesian and Malay.
• كركم (kurkum) in Arabic
• כורכום (kurkum) in Hebrew
• Cúrcuma or Palillo (South America) in Spanish
• മഞ്ഞള്‍ (manjal) in Malayalam
• Куркума (Kurkuma) in Russian
• Kurkuma in Polish
• زه‌رده‌چه‌وه (zardachawa) in Kurdish
• Sarıkök (literal: Yellow Root) in Azeri
• (kaha) in Sinhala
• Safran in creole Mauritius
• Curcuma in Portuguese and French
• Куркума (kurkuma) in Macedonian
• Kurkuma in Finnish
• Gurkmeja in Swedish
• 欝金 (ukon) in Japanese
• ขมิ้น (kamin) in Thai
• Geelwortel (literal: Yellow Root) or Kurkuma in Dutch.
• Zerdeçal, Hint Safranı in Turkish
• Դեղին կոճ (deghin koch) (literal: Yellow Seed) in Armenian
• Kurkuma in Hungarian

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

Grieve and Leyel 1992

• Schonbeck, J., and R. J. Frey. 2005. Turmeric. In J. L. Longe, The Gale Encyclopedia of Alternative Medicine. Farmington Hills, Mich: Thomson/Gale. ISBN 0787693960.

Turmeric: The Genus Curcuma By P. N. Ravindran, K. Nirmal Babu, K. Sivaraman Contributor P. N. Ravindran, K. Nirmal Babu, K. Sivaraman Published by CRC Press, 2007 ISBN 0849370345, 9780849370342 http://books.google.com/books?id=P2ykHQi6RvMC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_summary_r&cad=0

External links

• Turmeric info from the National Institute of Health (NIH)
• Turmeric List of Chemicals (Dr. Duke's)
• Plant Cultures: review of botany, history and uses

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