Mathias Oldhaver

Golden tuber, miracle remedy, yellow superfood. The admiration for turmeric is immense due to its diverse effects. However, calling it a hype would be misleading: turmeric has been used in Ayurveda and East Asian natural medicine for several thousand years. For about 30 years, Western medicine has also been intensively researching the secondary plant compound curcumin and can scientifically substantiate many empirical findings. However, turmeric contains only two to five percent curcumin, which is also only minimally bioavailable. Therefore, laypeople who read about the effectiveness of turmeric in magazines and think they can do something good for their health by consuming it daily are misled. Those who wish to use curcumin therapeutically should choose curcumin preparations that have enhanced bioavailability.