Metabolite Encyclopedia › Plant polyphenols
Curcumin is the yellow pigment in turmeric. It does a great deal in a test tube and very little of it ever reaches your bloodstream, and that gap is the single most important thing to understand about it.
- Also calledDiferuloylmethane
- Found inTurmeric root
- Known forVery low oral bioavailability
- Cleared byGut wall and liver, rapidly
Three things worth knowing
Turmeric is mostly not curcumin. Dried turmeric root is only a few percent curcuminoids by weight. The rest is starch, fiber, protein and oils. The pigment that gives it the color and the name is a minor component of the root.
Its absorption problem is the most studied thing about it. Curcumin is poorly absorbed from the gut, heavily modified by the gut wall and liver before it gets anywhere, and eliminated quickly. After an oral dose, blood concentrations are frequently at or below the limit of detection. This is not a fringe criticism. It is the central, openly acknowledged obstacle in the entire field.
It is also a pH indicator. Curcumin is yellow in acidic conditions and turns red in alkaline ones. Paper soaked in turmeric is a classic cheap laboratory test for a base, and it is the same color chemistry that stains a plastic container after one curry.
What is actually in the root
Where you meet it in food
- Turmeric
- Curry powder
- Prepared mustard
- Some pickles
In prepared mustard and many pickles, turmeric is there as a coloring agent rather than for flavor.
Questions people actually ask
Why is curcumin poorly absorbed?
Several reasons at once. It barely dissolves in water, little of it crosses the gut wall, and what does cross is chemically modified by the gut and liver within minutes and sent toward excretion.
Does black pepper help?
Piperine, the pungent compound in black pepper, slows one of the pathways that clears curcumin, and that combination is widely used for exactly this reason. It addresses part of the problem, not the whole of it.
Is turmeric the same as curcumin?
No. Turmeric is the whole root. Curcumin is one pigment inside it, making up only a few percent of the dried weight.
Does curcumin help you sleep?
There is no established evidence that it does, and this page is not going to suggest otherwise. It appears here because it was identified in AHARA's metabolomic map of its elixirs.
Curcumin is one of more than 2,000 metabolites AHARA mapped across its Reishi and Lion's Mane elixirs. You can browse the rest of what is in the bottle.
Open the Metabolite EncyclopediaReferences
Hewlings SJ, Kalman DS. Curcumin: a review of its effects on human health. Foods. 2017;6(10):92. doi:10.3390/foods6100092
Anand P, Kunnumakkara AB, Newman RA, Aggarwal BB. Bioavailability of curcumin: problems and promises. Mol Pharm. 2007;4(6):807-818. doi:10.1021/mp700113r
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.
