Origin ofcurcuma¹

Origin ofcurcuma¹

Turmeric spice comes from another plant part — the rhizomes, or underground stems, of the flowering plant Curcuma longa.

A: Turmeric, an underground stem from a plant called Curcuma longa, has a wide range of potential health benefits.

Turmeric comes from the root of a plant in the ginger family, Curcuma longa, and contains a chemical compound, curcumin, that has long been used in traditional Chinese and Indian medicine.

In a 12-week randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, researchers assigned 70 people with symptomatic knee osteoarthritis to take either two capsules a day of a Curcuma longa extract or two capsules of an identical-looking placebo.

The researchers found patients with knee osteoarthritis who took the extract of Curcuma longa, a plant also known as turmeric, had less knee pain than those who took a placebo after 12 weeks, with no adverse events, according to the published report in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.