Turmeric

Seyed Javad Kia et al. (2020) · BMC complementary medicine and therapies

This double-blinded randomised trial with 57 adults who have oral lichen planus (OLP) explored whether nano-curcumin, a highly absorbable form of the turmeric compound curcumin, could ease the condition as effectively as the steroid prednisolone. OLP is an autoimmune condition in which T cells attack the lining of the mouth, producing white streaks, erosions, burning and pain; steroids are the standard treatment but cause side effects when used long term. Curcumin has anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, but ordinary curcumin is poorly absorbed, so the researchers tested a nano-sized version taken by mouth. At an oral medicine department in Iran, 60 patients with erosive or atrophic OLP were randomly assigned to take either one 80 mg nano-curcumin capsule or one 10 mg prednisolone capsule each morning after breakfast for 4 weeks. An examiner who did not know the groups measured lesion size with calipers and a lesion-grading scale and asked patients to rate pain and burning from 0 to 10 at the start and at weeks 1, 2 and 4. Fifty-seven patients were analysed. Both treatments helped. Pain fell from 4.65 to 2.69 with nano-curcumin and from 4.89 to 2.33 with prednisolone (p < 0.001 over time), and lesions shrank from 3.83 to 2.34 versus 3.61 to 1.83 (p < 0.001 over time). The two groups did not differ significantly at any visit (pain p = 0.428, lesion size p = 0.568), although prednisolone was ahead on lesion size at week 4 by a margin that did not reach significance (p = 0.117). Curcumin's pain relief became significant from week 2, prednisolone's from week 1. The trial had no placebo arm, lasted only 4 weeks, and followed no one after treatment, so recurrence could not be measured. The authors suggest nano-curcumin may be an option for people who cannot take corticosteroids and that its dose may matter more than treatment length, and they call for longer studies.

Fatemeh Bourbour et al. (2026) · Endocrinology, diabetes & metabolism

This double-blind randomised trial with 57 adults who have Hashimoto's thyroiditis explored whether curcumin, the yellow polyphenol in turmeric (Curcuma longa), adds benefit to an anti-inflammatory diet. Hashimoto's thyroiditis is an autoimmune condition in which the immune system attacks the thyroid gland, shown in blood tests by anti-thyroid peroxidase antibodies (anti-TPO) and treated in many patients with lifelong levothyroxine. Because many people with the condition carry extra weight and chronic inflammation, the researchers asked whether an anti-inflammatory eating pattern plus curcumin could shift thyroid markers, body measurements and cholesterol. Researchers in Tehran, Iran, enrolled adults aged 20 to 70 with a confirmed diagnosis. Every participant ate the same structured anti-inflammatory diet of whole grains, olive oil, berries, nuts, legumes, vegetables and fatty fish. For 12 weeks, half also took 1,320 mg of curcumin daily as three capsules with meals, and half took look-alike rice-flour placebo capsules. Blood tests measured anti-TPO, thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), T3, T4 and lipids, and tape measures tracked waist and hips. Anti-TPO antibodies fell significantly more with curcumin than with placebo (p = 0.006), where antibodies rose numerically (within-group change not significant), which points to a possible effect on thyroid autoimmunity. Within the curcumin group waist circumference dropped 4.2 cm (p = 0.042) and TSH dropped 2.38 mIU/L (p = 0.014), but neither difference was significant against placebo after adjustment, so these changes may come partly from the diet. T3 fell in both groups, which supports that interpretation. Cholesterol, triglycerides and T4 did not differ between groups, and HDL-C moved only toward significance (p = 0.053). The curcumin group's gains held when men were excluded (anti-TPO p = 0.010). The authors call the results preliminary and note the small sample, the short 12-week window, and reliance on self-reported food recalls. Because both groups changed their diets, the trial cannot fully separate curcumin from the diet itself. Lower antibody levels may also fluctuate over time and do not prove long-term disease change. Larger, longer studies with designs that separate diet from supplement are needed before any treatment role for curcumin in Hashimoto's thyroiditis can be judged.

Sedighe Esmaeilzadeh et al. (2025) · Reproductive biology and endocrinology : RB&E

This systematic review and meta-analysis combined 17 randomized controlled trials (15 pooled, 996 women) to ask whether antioxidant supplements ease the pain of endometriosis, a chronic inflammatory condition in which tissue like the uterine lining grows outside the uterus. Oxidative stress (damage from unstable oxygen molecules called free radicals) is thought to feed the inflammation and pain, so antioxidants such as melatonin, vitamins C, D, and E, curcumin (from turmeric), garlic, silymarin (from milk thistle), and resveratrol have been tested. Results across individual trials have been inconsistent, and earlier reviews were narrower, so this one searched seven sources through January 2025 and graded the certainty of the evidence. Included trials enrolled women aged 18 to 49 with confirmed endometriosis, mostly in Iran, plus Egypt, Brazil, the United States, China, and Sweden. Women took an oral antioxidant or a comparator (placebo, standard care, or nothing) for 8 to 24 weeks. The review pooled three pain outcomes using standardized mean differences (a way to combine different pain scales into one measure): painful periods (dysmenorrhea), painful intercourse (dyspareunia), and chronic pelvic pain. Study quality was graded with Cochrane RoB 2, and evidence certainty with GRADE. For painful periods, 12 trials (706 women) showed lower pain with antioxidants (SMD -1.26; 95% CI -2.19 to -0.32, equal to about 3 points on a 0 to 10 scale), but results varied enormously between trials (I² = 90.1%), so the evidence was rated low certainty. Melatonin stood out (SMD -1.89; 95% CI -2.48 to -1.31), while vitamin D, vitamins C plus E, omega-3, resveratrol, and curcumin did not reach significance. Painful intercourse showed no significant effect (SMD -1.01; 95% CI -2.27 to 0.24). Chronic pelvic pain fell in the pooled analysis (SMD -1.07; 95% CI -1.71 to -0.42), but the evidence was very low certainty and the effect vanished when trials with conflicts of interest were removed. Single trials of garlic powder and silymarin reported lower pain, whereas curcumin did not. Only 7 of 17 trials had low risk of bias. The authors say the findings do not support routine antioxidant use for endometriosis pain, and describe melatonin as the most promising candidate for painful periods, pending confirmation. Limitations include very high heterogeneity, small trials, different antioxidants and doses, bigger effects in weaker studies, and little control of baseline vitamin levels or diet. The paper did not report adverse events. The garlic and silymarin findings come from single trials, and publication-bias testing found no small-study effects for chronic pelvic pain. The authors call for larger, standardized trials.

Janmejaya Samal (2015) · Journal of intercultural ethnopharmacology

This systematic review pooled published research on using Ayurveda, India's traditional medical system, alongside standard drugs for pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) — a bacterial lung infection that remains one of India's leading causes of death. The review searched PubMed through April 2015 and found six studies worth including: four human trials testing Ayurvedic herbal formulas as add-ons to standard anti-TB drugs (ATDs), and two lab studies testing plant extracts directly against the TB bacterium. In Ayurveda, PTB is traditionally understood as Rajayakshma, a wasting condition tied to depleted bodily tissues (dhatu) and vital reserve (ojas) — explaining why many of the formulas studied are rejuvenative "Rasayana" tonics rather than antibiotics. The four clinical trials enrolled 30 to 133 PTB patients each, all in India, and ran from 28 days to 6-8 months. Participants took Ayurvedic formulas — a nine-herb Rasayana capsule, a liquid tonic called Bhringarajasava, Ashwagandha with Chyawanprash, or a hepatoprotective blend called Liv-600 — alongside their prescribed drug regimen (DOTS). Researchers tracked symptoms like cough and fever, body weight, X-ray changes, drug blood levels, and liver enzymes. The two lab studies tested leaf and plant extracts against TB bacteria in culture, measuring the lowest concentration that stopped bacterial growth. Across the trials, Ayurvedic add-ons consistently eased symptoms and supported weight gain more than standard treatment alone (p<0.001 in the largest trial). One striking finding: Ashwagandha plus Chyawanprash raised blood levels of two key TB drugs, isoniazid and pyrazinamide, by 7-10% (meaning the body absorbed more of the medicine that actually kills the bacteria) — potentially valuable given rising drug resistance. The hepatoprotective blend showed no harmful rise in liver enzymes, suggesting it may guard against the liver damage these drugs can cause. In the lab, extracts from four of five tested legumes completely stopped bacterial growth at a low concentration (50 micrograms per milliliter), and extracts from five other plants inhibited even drug-resistant TB strains by up to 95%. These findings position Ayurvedic formulas as promising supportive care — easing symptoms, protecting the liver, and possibly boosting drug absorption — rather than replacements for standard TB treatment, which no study tested. The evidence base is thin: only six studies total, all small, mostly from India, with just one describing blinding and none pooling results statistically. The authors call for properly designed clinical trials of the lab-active plants, especially against multidrug-resistant TB. The evidence reviewed concerns Ayurvedic preparations as adjuncts to prescribed drug therapy; none of it addresses their use instead of it.

Zhiyong Long et al. (2023) · Frontiers in immunology

Whether the plant compounds often discussed for rheumatoid arthritis — turmeric, green tea, pomegranate, garlic — actually do anything is the question this meta-analysis set out to answer. This review gathered every randomized trial it could find on the question: 47 trials, nearly 3,900 people, fifteen different plant polyphenols, from Iran, China, Korea, Egypt, Japan, Brazil, India and the United States. The clearest picture came from two of them. The first is total glucosides of paeony, an extract of Chinese peony root that is a licensed prescription medicine in China. Twenty-three trials tested it — always added to standard RA drugs like methotrexate, never instead of them. Disease activity scores came down, and so did CRP, ESR and rheumatoid factor, the blood markers doctors track. The most interesting result: people taking it reported *fewer* side effects than people on the standard drugs alone. That fits how it is used clinically — it appears to soften the toll the conventional drugs take on the liver and stomach. The second is curcumin, the yellow compound in turmeric. Five trials, and the same direction: lower disease activity, lower inflammatory markers, no extra side effects. Green tea polyphenols looked promising across two trials. Saffron did not show a clear effect. Everything else — pomegranate, garlic, resveratrol, sesame, cinnamon, ginger, kudzu, cranberry, olive oil, quercetin — rests on one or two small trials apiece, which is encouraging but not yet evidence that bears weight. The honest caveat, which the authors state plainly themselves: the trials disagreed with each other a great deal, most were small, and when the researchers sliced the data by dose and duration some of the headline benefits faded. Nearly all of these were add-on studies. Nobody tested a polyphenol against methotrexate, so the evidence says nothing about replacing a prescribed medication. What it does support is turmeric and peony extract as the best-evidenced candidates, studied as additions to existing treatment rather than replacements for it.

Metha Yaikwawong et al. (2024) · Nutrition journal

This 12-month randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial with 272 adults with type 2 diabetes (T2DM) and obesity explored whether curcumin, the active compound in turmeric (Curcuma longa), could protect the pancreatic beta cells that produce insulin. In T2DM, obesity drives insulin resistance (cells responding poorly to insulin), which forces beta cells to work harder until their function starts to decline. Researchers tracked beta-cell function using HOMA-beta, an index calculated from fasting insulin and glucose, alongside HOMA-IR (a related index for insulin resistance) and two hormones made by fat tissue: adiponectin, which improves insulin sensitivity, and leptin, which signals fullness but runs high with excess body fat. Participants, all 35 or older and already taking metformin, were randomly assigned to six capsules a day (1,500 mg total) of standardized curcumin extract or an identical-looking placebo for 12 months, with 115 people in the placebo group and 114 in the curcumin group at randomization. Neither participants nor staff knew who received which capsule. Blood was drawn at baseline and every three months to measure fasting glucose, HbA1c (average blood sugar over about three months), body weight, BMI, insulin, HOMA-beta, HOMA-IR, adiponectin, and leptin. By 12 months, curcumin-treated participants had notably better beta-cell function than the placebo group (HOMA-beta 136.2 vs. 105.2; P<0.01, meaning their beta cells were working more efficiently), a difference that only became significant at 9 and 12 months, suggesting the benefit builds gradually rather than appearing right away. Insulin resistance dropped further with curcumin (HOMA-IR 4.86 vs. 6.04; P<0.001, lower is better), and blood sugar control improved (fasting glucose 115 vs. 131 mg/dL, P<0.05; HbA1c 6.12% vs. 6.47%, P<0.05). The curcumin group also lost more weight (66.1 vs. 69.3 kg, P<0.001) and lowered BMI (25.98 vs. 27.34, P<0.001), while adiponectin rose (14.5 vs. 10.4 ug/mL, P<0.001, more of the "good" fat hormone) and leptin fell (9.4 vs. 20.7 ug/mL, P<0.001, less of the fullness hormone that runs high in obesity). The authors connect these changes to curcumin's anti-inflammatory activity, since inflammation is a known driver of beta-cell decline. Mild side effects, abdominal pain, diarrhea, and headache, occurred in both groups with no one dropping out because of them, and liver and kidney markers stayed normal, suggesting curcumin extract is reasonably safe as a year-long add-on for people already managing T2DM with metformin. Because the trial tested only one dose at a single Thai hospital, it cannot show whether a different dose would work better or whether these results generalize elsewhere. Larger, multi-center trials testing a range of doses would help confirm curcumin's place alongside standard diabetes care.

Liuting Zeng et al. (2022) · Frontiers in immunology

This systematic review and meta-analysis pooled 31 randomized controlled trials (34 study records, roughly 1,583 participants) exploring curcumin and Curcuma longa (turmeric) extract across 10 autoimmune diseases — conditions where the immune system mistakenly attacks the body's own tissue. Autoimmune disease covers more than 120 named conditions; this review focused on ankylosing spondylitis, Behçet's disease, Crohn's disease, multiple sclerosis, oral lichen planus, psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, Takayasu arteritis, and ulcerative colitis. Curcumin is the main active compound in turmeric, long used in Chinese medicine, and is studied here for its ability to regulate immune cells and reduce inflammation. Researchers searched English and Chinese databases plus the Cochrane Library and ClinicalTrials.gov through February 2022, screening 2,991 records down to 31 RCTs that tested curcumin or Curcuma longa extract against placebo or usual care. Trial count per disease varied widely: 9 RCTs for ulcerative colitis and 6 for oral lichen planus, but only 1 each for ankylosing spondylitis, Behçet's disease, and Takayasu arteritis. Doses ranged from 60 mg to 6,000 mg daily, taken orally, or in some trials applied as a gel, mouthwash, or enema, for 2 to 96 weeks. Disease activity was tracked with condition-specific scales (PASI for psoriasis, DAS28 for rheumatoid arthritis, EDSS for multiple sclerosis, and others) alongside blood markers like ESR and CRP. Where enough trials existed to combine statistically, curcumin performed well. In psoriasis, it roughly tripled the rate of major skin-clearance (PASI75: RR=3.01, p=0.008—meaning patients getting curcumin were about three times as likely to see substantial improvement). In ulcerative colitis, it raised clinical remission more than twofold (RR=2.28, p=0.0005) and lowered inflammatory markers ESR and CRP. In rheumatoid arthritis, it reduced the DAS28 disease-activity score (WMD=-1.10, p=0.0002—a clinically noticeable drop in joint disease activity), though results varied considerably between the five trials. Oral lichen planus, despite being studied in six trials, did not show a significant benefit on its pooled lesion-severity score (p=0.17). None of the pooled analyses found more side effects with curcumin than with placebo. The other six diseases each had just one or two small trials reporting improvement, too few to combine or confirm. These findings support curcumin as a reasonably safe adjunct for psoriasis, ulcerative colitis, and rheumatoid arthritis specifically, where the evidence is strongest and most consistent; for the seven other diseases, results are preliminary and should not yet guide treatment decisions. Curcumin's poor absorption from the gut remains a practical obstacle to reliable dosing. The authors call for larger, multi-center trials, especially for the thinly studied conditions, before broader clinical recommendations can be made.

Zeng L et al. (2022) · Frontiers in Immunology

This systematic review and meta-analysis evaluates the efficacy and safety of curcumin and Curcuma longa extract across five types of arthritis: rheumatoid arthritis (RA), osteoarthritis (OA), ankylosing spondylitis (AS), juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), and gout/hyperuricemia. Twenty-nine randomized controlled trials involving 2,396 participants were included, drawn from 11 countries. For RA (6 RCTs), curcumin significantly reduced disease activity (DAS28), ESR, CRP, and rheumatoid factor compared to controls. For OA (20 RCTs), curcumin reduced pain (VAS and WOMAC-pain), improved physical function, and decreased stiffness compared to placebo. Notably, curcumin showed comparable efficacy to NSAIDs (ibuprofen, diclofenac) with significantly fewer adverse events. For AS, a single RCT of nanocurcumin showed increased regulatory T cells and decreased IL-6. Two JIA trials found curcumin improved disease activity scores in children. Doses ranged from 120 to 1,500 mg daily for 4-36 weeks. The mechanisms of action include inhibition of NF-kB signaling, COX-2 suppression, NLRP3 inflammasome inhibition, and modulation of the RANK/RANKL/OPG system. Safety was favorable across all studies, with no serious adverse events attributed to curcumin. However, the evidence is limited by small sample sizes, short follow-up periods, high heterogeneity, and potential industry funding bias.