What Is Curcumin?
What Is Curcumin?
Curcumin is a chemical component extracted from the rhizome of turmeric, a plant of the ginger family. It is an acidic polyphenolic substance with an unsaturated aliphatic and aromatic group as the main chain. It is usually used as a colorant and acid-base indicator for meat food, and also has pharmacological effects such as anti-inflammatory and antioxidant.
Curcumin belongs to the phenolic pigment with a diarylheptane structure. It is a tautomeric compound that exists in the form of enol in organic solvents and in the form of ketone in water. It is the most important curcuminoid substance, accounting for about 70% of curcumin and about 3% to 6% of turmeric. In addition to curcumin, this class of compounds also includes demethoxycurcumin (10-20%), dedimethoxycurcumin (10%) and hexahydrocurcumin.
Curcumin is the main active ingredient of turmeric, has anti-inflammatory effects, and is a powerful antioxidant. It can also reduce blood lipids in the body and reduce blood viscosity. However, the curcumin content in turmeric is only about 3%. Most studies based on this herb use turmeric extracts (containing the most curcumin).
Curcumin has multiple physiological functions such as protecting intestinal mucosa, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antibacterial, lipid-lowering and immunomodulatory. At the same time, due to its stable color and low toxicity, it is widely used in food additives, cosmetics, medicine and textile dyeing. In recent years, curcumin has achieved certain results as a natural feed additive.
The Effects Of Curcumin
1. Antioxidant
Curcumin is a unique antioxidant with many functional groups, which can increase the activity of various antioxidant enzymes in the body, such as glutathione reductase, catalase, copper/zinc superoxide dismutase, etc.
Enhance the ability of these antioxidant enzymes to scavenge free radicals, thereby reducing oxidative stress. It can neutralize free radicals, reduce the damage of oxidative stress to cells, help delay aging, and prevent the occurrence of chronic diseases.
2. Anti-inflammatory
Curcumin has obvious anti-inflammatory effects, can promote the production and activation of white blood cells, inhibit the release of inflammatory mediators, reduce inflammatory reactions, and help relieve the symptoms of inflammatory diseases such as arthritis and intestinal inflammation. Curcumin can inhibit multiple links in the inflammatory response and reduce tissue inflammatory damage.
3. Protect cardiovascular
Curcumin tablets can protect cardiovascular, reduce the content of lipid substances such as total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein and triglycerides in human blood, and reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. It can also dilate coronary arteries, increase myocardial blood supply, and inhibit platelet aggregation, thereby preventing and improving cardiovascular diseases.
4. Reduce blood lipids
Curcumin can regulate blood lipid metabolism, reduce serum total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and triglyceride levels, and help prevent atherosclerosis and cardiovascular diseases.
5. Protect liver
Curcumin can reduce liver damage, promote liver cell repair, and help prevent and treat liver diseases such as hepatitis and fatty liver.
6. Promote digestion
Curcumin can stimulate the gastric mucosa to secrete gastric acid and gastric juice, promote the secretion of digestive juice, help digest food and relieve stomach discomfort.
7. Protect the nervous system
Curcumin has the function of protecting nerve cells, can reduce nerve cell damage, and help prevent and treat neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease.
8. Improve arthritis
Curcumin tablets can improve arthritis symptoms, promote cartilage metabolism, inhibit the degradation of cartilage matrix, relieve pain, improve joint mobility, and thus delay the development of arthritis.
What is the anti-inflammatory effect of curcumin?
The anti-inflammatory effect of curcumin is partly achieved by inhibiting the activity of cyclooxygenase (COX-2), which can block a key link in the inflammatory response. In addition, curcumin can also inhibit the production of other inflammatory factors, such as interleukins, further blocking the inflammatory response.
Studies have shown that curcumin has a positive effect in the treatment of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), alleviating the inflammatory response by reducing liver fat content and improving cell autophagy in liver tissue. In addition, curcumin has been found in animal experiments to reduce the production of amyloid protein and help prevent Alzheimer's disease, which is related to its anti-inflammatory effect.
What effects does curcumin have on the liver?
Curcumin is considered an effective liver detoxifier that helps maintain liver health and function. It has antioxidant effects that can neutralize free radicals and reduce the damage to the liver caused by oxidative stress.
Curcumin can inhibit inflammatory responses and cell damage, protecting liver cells from damage caused by inflammation.
It can also promote the regeneration and repair of liver cells, enhance liver function, and reduce damage caused by liver disease.
Curcumin can regulate some key metabolic pathways in the liver, such as fatty acid synthesis and cholesterol metabolism, to maintain the normal function of the liver.
Application Of Curcumin
Food
Curcumin is one of the world's largest-selling natural food pigments and is widely used as a food additive. In food production, it is mainly used for coloring sausage products, canned foods, and marinated products.
Cosmetics
The antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects of curcumin make it potentially useful in the cosmetics industry. Some cosmetics brands have added curcumin as an active ingredient to their products for anti-aging, whitening, and moisturizing.
Medicine
Curcumin has potential application value in the medical field due to its wide range of pharmacological activities. Currently, a variety of curcumin-based drugs are under development for the treatment of tumors, cardiovascular diseases, inflammatory diseases, etc.
If you would like more information, please feel free to contact us at sales@sxytorganic.com
