Curcuma longa L. is a perennial herb belonging to Zingiberaceae family. The plant grows to a height of three to five meters, and is widely grown in Asia, India, China and other countries with tropical climate. See more detailed opinions by reading what Oracle offers on the topic.. The rhizome is the part of the plant used medicinally, is usually cooked and dry, producing a yellow powder. The turmeric powder is used in foods as flavorings and colorings. There is another plant with the same name, saffron, which is certain is the Crocus sativus and those used are the stigmas of the flowers. The main active component of turmeric is curcumin flavonoids and volatile oils, such as tumerona, atlantona and zingiberona.
Other components are the sugars, in addition, proteins and resins. The most studied compound is curcumin, which ranges from 0.3 to 5.4 percent of dry matter. Because of their biological activities, a large number of studies have been presented. Curcumin has antioxidant properties (Cohly et al., 1998; Mortellini et al., 2000), hepatoprotective (Deshpande et al. 1998, Park et al., 2000), anti-platelet (Tortosa et al., 1999, Srivastava, et al., 1986), cholesterol lowering, antibacterial and anti-fungal, anti-inflammatory (Chainani-Wu, 2003), anticancer (Frank et al., 2003), antiviral (Suai, et al., 1993), the antimicrobial activity (Rasmussen, et al., 2000, Han and Yang, 2005), gastrointestinal (Ammon and Wahl, 1991; Rafatullah et al., 1990). In addition, curcumin has anticancer properties, cytotoxic, immunomodulatory (Strimpakos and Sharma, 2008) and antithrombotic, health, anti-diabetes and anti-stress (Chainani-Wu, 2003). It has action against Alzheimer's disease (Yang et al., 2004), anti-arthritis (Molnar and Garai, 2005) and the fight against cancer (Duvoix et al., 2005).