As wildfires ravage California and the West Coast of the US several cities have been shrouded in smoke and orange fog. The scenes are eerie and apocalyptic.
Turmeric, the most special of all spices
Turmeric is a spice with a pungent aroma that helps prevent and treat many diseases. Its gnarled roots are similar to those of ginger, but its pulp is of a beautiful bright orange colour.
Turmeric, a yellow root of the ginger family, is cultivated in China, Indonesia, Costa Rica. The Hawaiian traditional medicine is completely based on this spice, which is there called “holena”. In India, the major producer of turmeric worldwide, it is used for centuries in Ayurvedic medicine for its preventive and therapeutic properties and mainly to heal inflammation and wounds.
PubMed Health of the National Library of Medicine features hundreds of scientific publications on turmeric. Here it is described as a powerful natural antioxidant that slows the progression of HIV, prevents red blood cells from coagulating, impedes the development of candida and other fungal infections, protects from sunrays, inhibits cataract formation, encourages joint motility, relieves arthritis pain, serves as a remedy against psoriasis, detoxifies the blood, protects the liver, delay brain ageing and Alzheimer’s disease and treats tumours. According to one of the articles, it is the most powerful natural anti-inflammatory.
In 1996, two Indian researchers at an American university, after producing a drug whose active ingredient was exactly this yellow spice, requested and obtained a patent for it: a meaningful example of biopiracy. The legal action taken by the Indian Council for Scientific Research, however, brought the US Patent Office to admit that the medicinal properties of turmeric are an Indian discovery and therefore not patentable and to declare the revocation of the patent. A victory that prevented the pharmaceutical industry to be interested in turmeric and that explains why the extraordinary properties of this root, widely demonstrated by modern science, are not yet worldwide exploited.
Here are a few articles to delve more deeply into the healing properties of turmeric.
7 foods to lower inflammation and reduce belly fat
Recipe: lentil and turmeric quiche
Turmeric, the spice that keeps us young
Turmeric, a powerful anti-cancer spice
Turmeric, how to use it in cooking
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