Turmeric is called turmeric in English and haldi in Hindi. Turmeric is a botanical term. It comes from curcumin or curcuminoid who are types of polyphenols that produce the color yellow.
Turmeric is sometimes called “Indian saffron”. It is a rhizome, which is the same family as ginger. This rhizome is boiled and then peeled, dried and pulverized to be used as a spice and enters the spice mixtures of Indian food (eg curry).
In fact, turmeric is part of the essential spices in Indian cuisine. It is used in cooking for its taste and its coloring power, it is also used a beauty product and also as a drug (an antibiotic). Turmeric helps digestion.
In India, in the past but even today in some villages, turmeric was used first care in case of injury: it was applied in powder directly on the wound. For muscle or joint pain, drank a glass of milk mixed with turmeric.
Turmeric has the power to prevent skin allergies and bacteria away. It is a component of several pastes applied directly to the skin.
In traditional marriages, for several days the women of the family and the neighborhood are concerned with the beauty of the bride and groom: they coat them with a mixture of turmeric, besan and of rose water. This ritual is accompanied by songs and dances.
Pickles are also made with turmeric rhizomes. They can be found in the organic vegetable store shelves which sometimes have these rhizomes of turmeric!
Turmeric has a bright color, it may yellow fingers, if directly affected (careful with your clothing!) It is the town of Erode in the Tamil Nadu region, which produces the largest amount of turmeric in Asia. It is a city which is also known as the “yellow city”. Apart from India, China and Indonesia also produce turmeric!
Turmeric, whose scientific name is Curcuma Longa is a perennial plant native to southern Asia and especially India, where he was discovered there over 4000 years ago. It belongs to the family Zingiberaceae of herbaceous plants with underground rhizome roots and often forming tubers.
Its name comes from the Sanskrit kunkuma; it is sometimes called “Indian saffron”. It is the rhizome of turmeric, dried and powdered, which is the spice used for centuries in Indian cooking. It is found in many traditional recipes from Indonesia, North Africa, the Caribbean, among others, and even Britain where it is used to make the famous “Picadilly” (a vegetable-based marinade spices).
Turmeric was also used as sunset yellow, for example to dye saffron outfits Buddhist monks. In the diet, it serves as a dye for many rice dishes and is originally in the food industry, the yellow dye E100.
Turmeric properties
Turmeric properties have been known for a long time, particularly in India. First of all as an antioxidant. Curcuminoids have a high antioxidant activity (several times more potent than those of vitamin E). Turmeric curcumin also relieves digestive disorders. Turmeric is traditionally used to treat digestive system disorders. It is very effective to relieve and reduce all kinds of problems of the stomach and colon.
Scientists have however found that turmeric is very difficult to absorb by the body. The passage of curcuminoids is done at the golden gut and only a very small amount of ingested curcumin is able to take this step. Most of it only pass in the body and is eliminated.
Add turmeric to your diet to help to spice up a dish or color but allows only minimally to enjoy its benefits. Added to other spices, especially black pepper, which combined with turmeric, make it much more bioavailable (absorbed by the body). This molecule contained in black pepper is piperine.
It is because of the above health properties that turmeric curcumin is used as a potent dietary supplement. Thousands of turmeric curcumin reviews from happy customers attest that is is working as an efficient anti-inflammatory.
In fact, research has shown that the combination of piperine (in particular contained in the pepper) with curcumin improves the bioavailability of the latter.
The extracts of turmeric standards found in the market today are constituted by an association of curcumin and piperine, sometimes lecithin. It is important to note that piperine is not free of toxicity and can, in some cases, cause intestinal disorders. So just use a regular turmeric curcumin supplement and you will be fine.