Information on Herb Curcumin as a Live Plant

Description

• Turmeric, which produces curcumin, is a vibrant green plant. Long, pointed leaves drape around a white, spiky flower; the petals are often accented with purple centers. Turmeric grows anywhere between 1 1/2 to 3 feet in height. The rhizomes, which produce the curcumin, will be between 2 and 3 inches in length.

Plant Care

• Turmeric is native to India, where it has grown for thousands of years, but it can be grown elsewhere. Well-drained, sandy, loam soil is best. If your soil has more clay content, add compost to help drainage, as water-logging will damage turmeric. It loves water, growing throughout India's rain forests, but it must be able to drain. Raising the plant bed will also help with drainage. Turmeric grows in a narrow range of temperatures: 64 degrees to 86 degrees Fahrenheit.

Harvesting Curcumin

• According to the Curcuma Longa website, you should wait for the plant to droop and wilt before harvesting. This will take between seven and 10 months. According to Farzana Panhwar's dissertation on turmeric cultivation in Pakistan, rhizomes for harvesting should be about 3 inches long. The rhizomes are treated with a solution containing 0.35 percent dithane M-45 and 0.5 percent malthion for 30 minutes. These rhizomes are then dried and powdered. The turmeric spice that is produced is then strained for curcumin through solvent extraction.

Pests & Diseases

• Turmeric plants encounter several potential diseases. Rhizome rot, caused by water-logging, will cause plant death. It causes the pseudostem in new plants to decay. It can be countered by treating the ground with dithane M-45 solution at 15-day intervals.

  Leaf spot causes discoloration, stunted growth and death of leaves. It is primarily rampant in humid weather. It can be treated with sprays of the same dithane solution.

  Common pests include the shoot borer, leaf roller and rhizome scale.

Uses

• When curcumin is finally derived from this plant, it is used for medicinal, culinary and cosmetic purposes. According to the Linus Pauling Institute, the medicinal benefits of curcumin seem to be limited to organs surrounding the gastrointestinal tract.

  Curcumin has proved to be an effective antioxidant and is also known to cause apoptosis. The website MedicineNet defines apoptosis as "a form of cell death in which a programmed sequence of events leads to the elimination of cells without releasing harmful substances into the surrounding area." Apoptosis, the website notes, "plays a crucial role in developing and maintaining health by eliminating old cells, unnecessary cells, and unhealthy cells."

  In animal testing, oral curcumin administration reduced the development of oral, stomach, liver and colon cancer.

  Curcumin is also undergoing studies of its anti-inflammatory effects on cystic fibrosis and Alzheimer's disease.

  Curcumin is also used in dietary supplements.