Turmeric moves from the kitchen shelf to the clinic By Francis C. Assisi

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Extensive research over the last half century has revealed several important functions of curcumin, the researchers claim in a review essay scheduled for publication this month in Biochemical Pharmacology. The researchers are Ajay Goel of the Baylor University Medical Center, Dallas, and Ajaikumar B. Kunnumakkara and Bharat B. Aggarwal of The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston. Aggarwal is considered to be the world's leading authority on curcumin.

The report goes on to reveal a long list of potential therapeutic benefits derived from using up to 12 g of curcumin.

The researchers claim that various preclinical cell-culture and animal studies suggest that curcumin has potential as an antiproliferative, anti-invasive, and antiangiogenic agent; as a mediator of chemoresistance and radioresistance; as a chemopreventive agent; and as a therapeutic agent in wound healing, diabetes, Alzheimer disease, Parkinson disease, cardiovascular disease, pulmonary disease, and arthritis.

Pilot phase I clinical trials have shown curcumin to be safe even when consumed at a daily dose of 12 g for 3 months. Other clinical trials suggest a potential therapeutic role for curcumin in diseases such as familial adenomatous polyposis, inflammatory bowel disease, ulcerative colitis, colon cancer, pancreatic cancer, hypercholesteremia, atherosclerosis, pancreatitis, psoriasis, chronic anterior uveitis and arthritis.

Table 7 of the report includes a list of ongoing clinical trials with curcumin in patients with different diseases including Alzheimer's disease, HIV, pancreatic cancer, cervical cancer, colon cancer, colorectal cancer, psoriasis, epilepsy, oral lesions and ulcerative colitis. These trials are taking place in various institutions in the US, Israel, India, Australia and Japan.

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