Making Curcumin from Turmeric Root.

As you will recall, curcumin is the active ingredient in turmeric root. It is bright orangish-red in color and will stain everything it comes in contact with. I sprinkle a pinch or two of curcumin powder on everything I cook. Turmeric root is expensive, costing about $8.00 a pound at a produce market, so if you have the time and space, it pays to grow your own root. Turmeric root is very slow growing and will take nearly a year to mature and be ready for harvest. Be aware of the fact that some of the turmeric root sold in supermarkets has been treated with a chemical to suppress growth, this makes it almost impossible to grow in the garden. Once you have the root converting it to Curcumin is relatively simple, if a bit laborious and expensive. The first step is to boil the root for approximately 45 minutes. Next, place the root in a pan of cold water to cool it. The root is difficult to slice if still hot from the boiling process. At this point, the root must be sliced into 3 to 4 mm pieces so it can be dried. I dry the sliced pieces of root in a dehydrator at 400 degrees F for 24 hours. Dehydrators are expensive, but I know of no practical alternative to a commercial grade dehydrator when it comes to drying the root. Place the turmeric slices on one of the dehydrator racks, set the drying time and temperature and forget about it. Remove the dried root from the racks in 24 hours. At this point the slices will be hard as a rock. The next step is to grind the dried pieces of turmeric root into a powder. This step is performed with a commercial grade heavy duty vegetable grinder. At this point, the finely ground Curcumin is ready to use. Remember, you have to add black pepper to the curcumin if it is to be taken orally and absorbed from the intestinal tract. A ratio of four parts curcumin to one-part black pepper works well. In any case, this, obviously, is very time consuming and expensive process which explains, in part, the high cost of commercial Curcumin products sold on the internet and elsewhere. I’ll have more to say about the value of these Curcumin based products in my next post.

It Would Be Difficult To Over-Emphasize The Nutritional Value Of Turmeric Root. The most important ingredient of this tuber is, curcumin, one of the most powerful antioxidants and anti-inflammatory agents yet discovered. This remarkable natural substance has an ORAC (oxygen radical absorbance capacity) of 127,068, as compared to a glass of red wine (3607) or a cup of blue berries (8030). In short, curcumin is one of, if not, the most potent antioxidants and anti-inflammatory agents ever discovered. Inflammation is the precursor to most chronic diseases including Alzheimer’s, most forms of chronic cardiovascular disease and many forms of cancer. Most significantly, for many of us, aging isdirectly related to the various forms of chronic inflammation. So, how do we take advantage of this marvelous natural ingredient? There are two ways to make use of the curcumin in turmeric root. The first is the use turmeric soap. Simply wash daily with a Turmeric-based soap. This will greatly improve the quality of your skin and reduce the chances of developing conditions like senile keratosis. In fact, the daily application of turmeric soap will reverse some of the ill-effects of keratosis and similar skin conditions related to aging. Now, more importantly, how can we take advantage of the potential systemic benefits of the curcumin found in turmeric root. Curcumin has been used for years as a spice and medical remedy in India and other areas of Asia. Unfortunately, most of the curcumin we ingest is not absorbed in the gastrointestinal track and, thus, is of no significant value to us. In this respect, of great importance, was the discovery that the intestinal absorption of Curcumin is greatly enhanced by the presence of black pepper. This simple and inexpensive “trick” enhances the absorption of curcumin by an astounding 2000%. Several commercial brands of curcumin contain Piperine, the active ingredient in black pepper; however, small amounts of black pepper are as effective as this more expensive additive in enhancing Curcumin absorption. In this respect, just add a pinch or two of black pepper to your Curcumin and “you are off to the races!” So, how much curcumin should you be taking daily? As you might expect, the recommended dose of curcumin varies somewhat depending on the studies published. A summary of the material I reviewed suggests that the recommended dosage of curcumin is usually about 600 mgs taken three times a day. This, of course, varies somewhat depending on which of medical conditions one is attempting to treat. But, in general, one should be consuming approximately one level tsp of curcumin powder combined with black pepper each day. For most of us, sprinkling a pinch or two of Curcumin-black pepper mix on the foods we eat is probably adequate.