Turmeric vs Curcumin: What’s the difference?

TurmericTurmeric is the rhizome of a herb used as a medicinal and culinary spice. Rhizome’s are a continuously growing horizontal underground stem. Use of turmeric back to nearly 4000 years in India. Sanskrit has at least 53 names for turmeric, including names that translate to words and phrases like “prosperous,” “one that wins over diseases,” and “generous.”Turmeric and the isolated curcuminoids have been well researched. There have been in fact over 3000 research articles published on turmeric and curcumin in the last 25 years. Turmeric vs. Curcumin The most well-known and well studied phytochemical in turmeric is a curcuminoid called curcumin.There are other major curcuminoids in turmeric which are demethoxycurcumin and bisdemethoxycurcumin. In short, turmeric refers the the rhizome root itself with all the compounds within it, while curcumin refers to just the one isolated curcuinoid – curcumin.Both turmeric and curcumin have important uses. Turmeric is poorly absorbed, however in being poorly absorbed it is able to be nourishing due to it’s impact on gut microbes (acts as food for helpful gut microbes).However, if you are after the anti-inflammatory impact of curcumin and it’s research on reducing inflammatory pathways – you’ll want to use Curcumin alone. There are many different formulations of curcumin – for […]