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Turmeric: a natural anti-inflammatory tonic

Dr. Ed Bauman, Shiela Moorthy

Abstract
This article aims to enlighten readers on the many ways turmeric can enhance health when taken
internally as food and beverage, externally as health and beauty products and therapeutically as
supplements to manage, slow and with daily usage, alone or with modern medicine, reverse chronic
disease states.

Background and uses season.

Turmeric or Curcuma longa, while a spice native As many as 133 species of Curcuma have been
to south Asia, appears to have migrated to the identified worldwide. Most of them have
Far East, the Middle-East and the West via the common local names and are used for various
silk route, as the spice trade thrived, going back medicinal formulations. The turmeric plant
about 5000 years. Turmeric is a pungent spice needs temperatures of between 20°C and
that forms the basis for many curry powders. 30°C and a considerable amount of annual
It is also used as a natural food colourant. rainfall to thrive. Individual plants grow to
Traditionally, turmeric has been used to heal a height of 1 metre and have long, oblong
bruises, sprains, leech bites, inflamed joints, leaves. Plants are gathered annually for their
severe chest congestions and common colds. rhizomes and are reseeded from some of
those rhizomes in the following season. The
Plant specifics rhizome, from which the turmeric is derived,
is tuberous, with a rough and segmented
Turmeric is derived from Curcuma longa, skin. The rhizomes mature beneath the foliage
a rhizomatous herbaceous perennial plant in the ground. They are a yellowish-brown
belonging to the ginger family,Zingiberaceae. with a dull orange interior. The main rhizome
The plant grows an underground tuber, or is pointed or tapered at the distal end and
rhizome much like ginger does. It can take measures 2.5-7.0 cm (1-3 inches) in length
between 8 to 10 months for a new crop of and 2.5 cm (1 inch) in diameter, with smaller
roots to develop and it is not a plant that tubers branching off. When the turmeric
you can harvest in small pieces through the rhizome is dried, it can be ground to a yellow

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