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Curcumin, an ingredient in the curry spice turmeric, may help prevent heart failure. That's according to two new studies done on rats, not people. In both studies, researchers gave curcumin to rats. The rats then got surgery or drugs designed to put them at risk of heart failure. The rats that got curcumin showed more resistance to heart failure and inflammation than comparison groups of rats that didn't get curcumin. Also, in one of the studies, the researchers saw signs that curcumin treatment reversed heart enlargement. The other study didn't include that experiment. Together, the studies suggest that curcumin short-circuited...

Common Cooking Spice Found In Curry Shows Promise In Combating Diabetes And ObesityResearchers believe that curcumin, the anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant ingredient in turmeric, may lessen insulin resistance and prevents Type 2 diabetes in these mouse models by dampening the inflammatory response provoked by obesity. (Credit: iStockphoto/Nilesh Bhange) ScienceDaily (June 23, 2008) — Turmeric, an Asian spice found in many curries, has a long history of use in reducing inflammation, healing wounds and relieving pain, but can it prevent diabetes? Since inflammation plays a big role in many diseases and is believed to be involved in onset of both obesity and Type...

Curry-derived Molecules Might Be Too Spicy For Colorectal Cancers ScienceDaily (Nov. 6, 2007) — Curcumin, the yellowish component of turmeric that gives curry its flavor, has long been noted for its potential anti-cancer properties. Researchers from Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan, report on an apparent improvement upon nature: two molecular analogues of curcumin that demonstrate even greater tumor suppressive properties. The team presented their findings from the first test of these molecules in a mouse model of colorectal cancer November 5 at the American Association for Cancer Research Centennial Conference on Translational Cancer Medicine.Fresh turmeric roots. Curcumin, the yellowish component...

Source: University of California - Los Angeles Date: July 17, 2007 Scientists Isolate Chemical In Curry That May Help Immune System Clear Plaques Found In Alzheimer's Science Daily — Researchers have isolated bisdemethoxycurcumin, the active ingredient of curcuminoids -- a natural substance found in turmeric root -- that may help boost the immune system in clearing amyloid beta, a peptide that forms the plaques found in Alzheimer's disease. Using blood samples from Alzheimer's disease patients, researchers found that bisdemethoxycurcumin boosted immune cells called macrophages to clear amyloid beta. Ground turmeric in small bowl. (Credit: iStockphoto/Jenny Horne)In addition, researchers identified the...

Turmeric may reduce leukaemia risk - expert September 09 2004 at 04:22PM London - Turmeric, a spice used extensively in Asia as a key ingredient of curry, may be protecting children against leukaemia, a scientist said on Thursday. Rates of the blood cancer have been rising steadily for the past 50 years but its incidence in Asia is much lower than in the West. Professor Moolky Nagabhushan, of the Loyola University Medical Centre in Chicago, told a conference that factor could be due, at least partly, to turmeric. "Some of the known risk factors that contribute to the high incidence...