Turmeric is a plant native to southeast Asia, harvested for its rhizomes and used to flavour and colour Indian dishes. It was used for thousands of years as a remedy for stomach and liver ailments, and for its antimicrobial properties when applied on skin to heal sores. The two major bioactive compounds of turmeric are known as curcumin and aromatic turmerone (ar-turmerone). Curcumin is believed to have anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, anti-tumor, and antioxidant activities, and has been used in folk medicine to treat cancer, Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, arthritis, allergies, and other chronic illnesses. However, not much is known about the properties of ar-tumerone.
Some studies have linked ar-turmerone with antitumor properties, via the induction of apoptosis and through the inhibition of tumor cell invasion. Others still have looked at the anti-inflammatory properties of ar-tumerone in neural cells, suggesting it may be a useful in treating neurological diseases. A recent
open access study by a research group from the Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine at the Research Centre Juelich (Germany) looked at ar-turmerone in this role using neural stem cells.
