EFFECTIVE WAY OF MAKING TURMERIC & CURCUMIN BIO-AVAILABLE

[esoteric17]

SGM123 Wrote:What is most effective in making turmeric or curcumin bio-available? Black pepper extract or olive oil?

While black pepper extract (bioperine) appears to work to some degree in making turmeric or curcumin bioavailable it appears less successful than oil/fats in increasing these spices bio-availability. A drawback with black pepper extract is that it can irritate the stomach lining much like it's origin black pepper. Black pepper's irritating affect has been linked with stomach cancer and nausea. On the other hand using a good fat like antioxidant rich pure virgin olive oil or even peanut butter, prior to taking a teaspoon of tumeric or a capsule of curcumin, can greatly increase the bio-availability of turmeric or curcumin. These oils and fats keep our stomach acids from diminishing turmeric and curcumin's wonder powers.

For a long time researchers wondered why the turmeric in Indian curries and cuisine was so successful in getting into the blood and brain. Studies showed it was the fat used in Indian cooking. All those nut oils and butter were excellent transporters of turmeric and hence why the curry part of India has extremely low incidences of Alzheimers and inflammatory disease. I personally mix my morning turmeric with either pure virgin olive oil or some peanutbutter. Heck you could likely get that bio-availability with some chicken soup.

Indian grocery stores here in the USA sell turmeric by the very inexpensive pound. They often call it Haldi.

Piperine (from black pepper) has been shown to raise curcumin bioavailability by 2000%. People taking other drugs may want to avoid it because it can affect drug metabolism also (it raises the bioavailability of many things). I'm not sure about the stomach cancer though; people have been using black pepper for thousands of years.

Regarding the fat bioavailability, do you have any studies about that? I would be interested to see those. I have seen a study about curcumin bound to phosphatidylcholine (Meriva) which increased the bioavailability. This might indicate that taking curcumin with lecithin may help.


<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9619120">http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9619120</a><!-- m -->

Quote:Concomitant administration of piperine 20 mg produced much higher concentrations from 0.25 to 1 h post drug (P < 0.01 at 0.25 and 0.5 h; P < 0.001 at 1 h), the increase in bioavailability was 2000%. The study shows that in the dosages used, piperine enhances the serum concentration, extent of absorption and bioavailability of curcumin in both rats and humans with no adverse effects.

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.springerlink.com/content/41064982264j3516/">http://www.springerlink.com/content/41064982264j3516/</a><!-- m -->

Quote:The results suggest that curcumin formulated with phosphatidylcholine furnishes higher systemic levels of parent agent than unformulated curcumin.