Root of Gold

Break open fresh turmeric and the colour almost startles you.

Gold concealed beneath an ordinary brown skin.

Long before turmeric became a capsule on a wellness shelf, it was food, dye and medicine, used for centuries across South and Southeast Asia and holding an important place within Ayurvedic traditions.

Its best-known constituent is curcumin, one of a group of compounds called curcuminoids.

Modern research has explored curcumin particularly for its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activity. Research continues across a number of health conditions, but that does not make turmeric a cure-all.

Plants deserve better than that.

There is a peculiar habit in modern wellness of discovering a plant with an old medicinal relationship to humans, isolating its most interesting constituent and then giving it an ever-expanding list of miraculous powers.

Something is lost in the process.

Turmeric becomes “curcumin”.

The root becomes a supplement.

Relationship becomes consumption.

Perhaps we can hold more than one form of knowledge at once.

Traditional use matters.

Modern evidence matters.

Safety matters.

And the plant itself matters.

Turmeric can be enjoyed as part of food, while concentrated supplements are a different proposition and may interact with medicines or be unsuitable for some people. Therapeutic use deserves the same discernment we would bring to any other medicine.

Reverence for plants does not require us to exaggerate what they can do.

Quite the opposite.

To know a plant is to become interested in its limits as well as its gifts.

Turmeric does not need to be miraculous.

A root pulled from dark earth, carrying that astonishing gold within it, is remarkable enough.