Turmeric Is an Effective Preventative

Asian spice shows promise in combating cancer, other ailments

By Frank Greve Knight Ridder Newspapers

"WASHINGTON - Turmeric, the Asian spice that makes curry yellow, not to mention French's mustard and Hindu priests' robes, has yet another life: It's a promising potential weapon against several cancers, Alzheimer's, cystic fibrosis, psoriasis and other diseases.

"We know that it's an effective preventive at low doses," said Dr. Bharat Aggarwal, of the experimental therapeutics department at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. "The question is whether larger doses can be therapeutic" for disease sufferers.

At least a dozen clinical trials on humans are under way in the United States, Israel and England to test the safety and dosages of turmeric's main ingredient, curcumin. It's a hot topic in health journals, too, cited 967 times since 2000 in articles reported on PubMed, the National Library of Medicine's research service..."