March 5, 2008 -- The use of the spice turmeric (Curcuma longa) as a healing agent was proved, to Americans, during the late 1990s -- not by medical researchers, but in an America courtroom. In 1997, India's Council of Scientific and Industrial Research challenged a 1995 U.S. patent awarded to the University of Mississippi Medical Center in 1995 for its "discovery" of the "use of turmeric in wound healing." Turning to ancient Sanskrit documents, the Indians successfully argued against this biopiracy by reporting that turmeric has been used since Vedic times (5,000 years ago) in Indian healing, specifically to treat wounds and stomach infections.
Why the, um, patented interest in this humble root? Turmeric, a word derived from the Old French terre-merite, which ironically means earth-deserved, is a member of the ginger family and found throughout Asia. Ayurveda (traditional Indian medicine) uses turmeric extensively for its medical properties.
The fingers of this brown skinned, bright orange flesh rhizome are boiled or steamed, then dried and ground to produce turmeric powder. The root is not fibrous like ginger, but more consistent in nature and crunchy to bite. In India and throughout Asia, turmeric is liberally used in cooking. Indian curry powder, whose spice makeup is a guarded secret, depends on turmeric for its color. While the ingredients vary, most curry powders contain various amounts of turmeric, coriander seeds, cumin, fenugreek, ginger, nutmeg, fennel, cinnamon, white pepper, cardamom, cloves, black pepper and cayenne pepper. India consumes 80 percent of the world's production of turmeric.
But it is curcuminoids -- mainly curcumin, or diferuloyl methane, demethoxycurcumin, and bisdemethoxycurcumin -- turmeric's principal components, which have Western scientists busily working in their research labs and Indians going to court to protect what their culture has known since recorded history. Curcuminoids, which give turmeric its signature yellow color, seem to have health protective effects.
Recent American studies have suggested the possibility and recommended further research that dietary ingestion of curcumin may have a beneficial effect in degenerative aortic aneurysms; rheumatoid arthritis; inhibit the growth of harmful bacteria and intestinal parasites and fungi; cystic fibrosis; psoriasis; even slow the metastasis of some cancer cells. Many of these studies are consistent with the findings of traditional Ayurvedic medicine.
But one of the most attention-grabbing claims is from the UCLA-Veterans Affairs studies (2004, 2007) that investigated whether curcumin could shrink the protein deposits that clog the neuron pathways in the brains of Alzheimer's victims, a progressive and terminal disease. In healthy brains, these proteins are broken down and eliminated. These researchers found that curcumin given to lab mice could penetrate the blood-brain barrier effectively and bind those amyloid plaques. Currently, the UCLA Alzheimer's Disease Research Center is in human clinical trials.
5.1 million Americans are victims of Alzheimer's; however, the occurrence of Alzheimer's among those adults aged 70 to 79 in India, where 80 percent of the world's turmeric crop is consumed, is 4.4 times less than the rate in the United States.
If it is true that curcumin has some preventive properties, will a squirt of French's mustard (which uses turmeric for its color) or eating curry in an Indian restaurant daily help to deter the onset of AD? Although turmeric is a prime ingredient in the spice compounds used in Indian dishes, the amount of curcumin used in the clinical studies at UCLA was 2 to 4 grams, daily -- that's the equivalent of the amount of curcumin in eight cups of curry powder.
What about fresh turmeric? Since turmeric is a common ingredient in Indian, Thai, and Vietnamese cuisine, these roots are readily available in Asian markets, in the refrigerated-, but more typically in the frozen-foods section. Turmeric is also grown and used in Jamaica and may be found in some Latino markets as well. Fresh turmeric rhizomes should be kept refrigerated or frozen until use. Once boiled, dried and ground, turmeric powder should be kept in a tightly sealed container in a dark, dry place. Note: Working barehanded with turmeric has a downside -- hands will be stained the color of a Buddhist monk's robe for a few days.
Or there's the capsule: Local health food stores sell curcumin derivatives. The most popular at A&S Natural Health is Curcumin 95: Turmeric 18:1 Concentrate Antioxidant by Jarrow Formulas ($25.95 for 120 capsules), which recommends one to five 500mg capsules per day and contains the warning label: "These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent disease".
Most of the studies on curcumin are years away, if ever, from any Food and Drug Administration approval. For those people who have Alzheimer's, that will be too late. For their families, especially those with the nagging sense that the lonely and emotionally painful path of their mother, father, grandmother, or grandfather is one they will also walk, curcumin may bring an element of hope. Perhaps the holistic, unpatentable knowledge that both the Indian and Chinese cultures have established over thousands of years will ultimately lead to universal prevention, even a cure.
October 5, 2006 – In a small test with senior citizens – age 65 to 84 – researchers found that curcumin — a chemical found in curry and turmeric — may help the immune system clear the brain of amyloid beta, which form the plaques found in Alzheimer’s disease. The UCLA/VA researchers used a drug derived from curcumin to treat the immune system’s "PacMen" that travel through the brain and body, gobbling up waste products, and found them doing a better job of gobbling up the damaging amyloid beta.
Published in the October 9 issue of the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, the early laboratory findings may lead to a new approach in treating Alzheimer’s disease by enhancing the natural function of the immune system using curcumin, known for its anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant properties.
Using blood samples from six Alzheimer’s disease patients and three healthy control patients, the researchers isolated cells called macrophages, which are the immune system’s PacMen that travel through the brain and body, gobbling up waste products, including amyloid beta.
The team treated the macrophages with a drug derived from curcumin for 24 hours in a cell culture and then introduced amyloid beta.
Treated macrophages from three out of six Alzheimer’s disease patients showed improved uptake or ingestion of the waste product compared to the patients’ macrophages not treated with curcumin. Macrophages from the healthy controls, which were already effectively clearing amyloid beta, showed no change when curcumin was added.
“Curcumin improved ingestion of amyloid beta by immune cells in 50 percent of patients with Alzheimer’s disease. These initial findings demonstrate that curcumin may help boost the immune system of specific Alzheimer’s disease patients,” said Dr. Milan Fiala, study author and a researcher with the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and the VA Greater Los Angeles Health Care System. “We are hopeful that these positive results in a test tube may translate to clinical use, but more studies need to be done before curcumin can be recommended.”
The patients ranged in age from 65 to 84.
Fiala noted that the patients whose immune cells responded were younger and had higher scores on a Mini-Mental State Examination suggesting that curcumin may help those with less advanced dementia. Some of the patients may have already had additional curcumin in their systems due to participation in another UCLA study, which may have impacted findings.
“Our next step will be to identify the factors that helped these immune cells respond,” said Laura Zhang, a study author and a UCLA/VA research assistant in Fiala’s lab.
Fiala noted that the method researchers used to test the immune cell response of macrophages may provide a novel way of evaluating the effectiveness of drugs in clearing amyloid beta from the brain and may help to individualize Alzheimer’s disease treatment.
According to Fiala, macrophages are the soldiers of the innate immune system — the part of the immune system which is present at birth. Curcumin may support the body’s natural immune fighting function in directly helping macrophages clean away amyloid-beta. The treatment of macrophages with curcumin is radically different from some of the vaccine approaches currently being studied.
The study was funded by the Alzheimer’s Disease Association and private donors. The curcumin derived drug was provided by the Sabinsa Corporation, a company that manufacturers phytonutrients and specialty chemicals for nutritional, pharmaceutical and food industries. Fiala participated in a speaking engagement for Sabinsa.
Other study authors include: Michelle Mahanian, Justin Zaghi and Mark Rosenthal from the Department of Medicine, Veterans Affairs Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System and David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA; John Cashman of the Human BioMolecular Research Institute, San Diego; James Sayre of the Department of Biostatistics, UCLA School of Public Health; Araceli Espinosa of the UCLA Department of Neurobiology; Vladimir Badmaev, Applied Pharmacology, Sabinsa Corporation, New Jersey; Michael C. Graves, UCLA Department of Neurology; and George Bernard, UCLA Department of Neurology and Division of Oral Biology and Medicine, UCLA School of Dentistry.