Are turmeric supplements advisable?

Subject: Science and technology

Section: Health

Why in news:

Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), the country’s regulator of medicines, medical devices and biologicals, issued a medical advisory last week warning Australians of the risk of liver injury from using medicines and herbal supplements containing turmeric or its active ingredient, curcumin.

Why was this advisory issued?

There are over 600 listed medicines, legally available in Australia, that contain these curcuma species and/or curcumin.
TGA had received 18 reports of liver problems experienced by consumers taking products containing curcuma longa (turmeric) and/or curcumin.
The prolonged investigation and the evidence from nine of these reports had enough information to suggest that a liver injury may have been caused by curcuma longa or a curcumin product.

Does turmeric have health benefits?

The TGA warning says that the risk of liver injury did not appear to relate to curcuma longa consumed in “typical” dietary amounts as a food.
As a staple ingredient in South and South East Asian cuisine, turmeric is also used in Ayurvedic and Chinese-medicine concoctions.
Several studies indicate that curcumine has:
- Anti-oxidant properties that can help with inflammation.
- Can potentially help in arthritis and infections.
- Curcumin used along with the drug Artemisinin was effective in treating malaria when tested on mice.
There have also been studies investigating the drug as an adjuvant in chemotherapy based on results in mice and animal studies. But their studies on human trials are inconclusive.

Bioavailability of curcumine:

Very little of curcumine is absorbed, or made ‘bioavailable’, by the body.
A popular approach is to use piperine, the major active component of black pepper, which improves bioavailability by 2000%.

Challenges with curcumine consumption:

The ANSES report ( French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety) underlines that turmeric has “choleretic” properties.
- It means it stimulates the secretion of bile to improve digestion, and therefore, it is advisable that those with bile duct disease should avoid turmeric.
- Curcumin could also interact with medications such as anticoagulants, cancer drugs and immunosuppressants, reducing their safety and effectiveness.

Is there a ‘safe limit’ on the amount of turmeric that can be consumed?

The European Food Safety Authority has set an acceptable daily intake of 180 mg of curcumin per day for a 60 kg adult as the safe level of consumption.
The average consumption in France remains low, with 27 mg for heavy consumers of foods containing turmeric.
A World Health Organization/Food and Agricultural Organisation advisory recommends 3 mg/kg of body weight. A 75 kg person can have about 200 mg a day.
India’s Food Safety and Standards Authority of India has standards that packaged turmeric must comply with but nothing on the recommended dietary allowance.

India-USA patent dispute over turmeric:

The Indian government challenges the US for patenting turmeric and forces them to revoke it.
American researchers of Indian origin, Suman K. Das and Hari Har P. Cohlyof the University of Mississippi Medical Center put a claim to the US Patent and Trademark Office, maintaining that they had discovered haldi’s healing properties.
In March 1995, they received a patent for the Haldi medication.
On March 6, 1997, the United States filed its first complaint with the World Trade Organization (WTO) against India’s ‘patent protection for pharmaceutical and agricultural chemical products.‘
The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research requested a reexamination from the US Patent Office.
The patent,”use of turmeric in wound healing”, was cancelled in 1998. Evidence established that use of turmeric to promote wound healing had been known for generations in India, hence, it is not an invention.