Super raw material

As a representative of Ayurvedic herbs, the global market heat of curcumin has continued to grow in recent years. According to market data released by Grand View Research, the global curcumin market will reach $94.3 million in 2022; According to Global Market Insights’ report data, in 2020, the global market size of curcumin exceeded $70 million, and it is expected that from 2021 to 2027, the compound annual growth rate will exceed 11%, of which the food application market will have a compound annual growth rate of more than 12%. In terms of scientific research, as of February 2022, there were as many as 18,670 PubMed research papers related to curcumin, most of which focused on anti-inflammatory and antioxidant aspects; Among them, 2021 is the year with the most research data.

Curcumin is a natural plant polyphenol with diketone structure extracted from the roots of turmeric. The molecular formula is C21H206, the molecular weight is 368.37g/mol, the melting point is 183℃, and it is crystalline. It is a rare pigment with diketone in the plant kingdom, composed of two o-methylated phenols and one β-dione. Its properties are relatively stable under acidic conditions, but it is easy to decompose under neutral and alkaline conditions. In addition to turmeric, curcumin sources also include Curcuma aromatica Salisb., C.zedoaria(Berg.)Rosc. and Acorus calamus L. of the arisaaceae family. Curcumin is the most important and valuable component in turmeric, and its active component content reaches 100%. With years of research and development, curcumin has relied on its non-toxic and harmless biological characteristics and strong coloring ability, becoming one of the natural food colors authorized by the World Health Organization and many countries to be used in food and sold more, and is also one of the seven largest natural food colors in the world. At present, the application of curcumin mainly includes food, medicine and livestock and poultry breeding and other fields.

Curcumin has a strong physiological activity, modern medical research shows that curcumin has a special medical effect on a variety of modern diseases. It mainly includes:

• Antioxidant properties.

It is mainly embodied in scavenging active oxygen free radicals, inhibiting lipid peroxidation, increasing the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-PX). The study found that the antioxidant capacity of natural curcumin was 2.33 times, 1.6 times and 2.75 times that of biological flavonoids, vitamin E and vitamin C, respectively.

• Improve immunity.

Curcumin can cause the body to produce more “endogenous antimicrobial peptides” and “antibacterial proteins”, which help the immune system to fight off various bacterial, viral and fungal infections.

• Anti-inflammatory.

Curcumin plays an important role in reducing the release of pro-inflammatory factors and increasing the release of anti-inflammatory factors to control chronic inflammation such as rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, type 1 diabetes, myocarditis, systemic lupus erythematosus, polycystic ovary syndrome and so on.

• Cancer prevention.

Curcumin can regulate dozens of targets such as inflammatory factors, tumor metastasis factors, growth factors, protein kinases, oncoproteins, etc., reverse tumor process, and thus reduce tumor marker – carcinoembryonic antigen in blood. At the same time, it can also reduce the side effects of malignant tumor chemotherapy and reduce the number of intestinal polyps in people susceptible to bowel cancer, so as to have a special effect on the treatment and recovery of bowel cancer, stomach cancer, breast cancer and other cancers. Currently, more than 1,500 published studies have shown that curcumin can effectively treat more than 100 different types of cancer.

• Contributes to women’s health.

Curcumin has obvious effect in improving women’s gynecological health. Curcumin extracted from the Chinese herbal plant turmeric, and turmeric taste, warm, has the effect of breaking blood qi, menstruation pain, curcumin can also help promote the stagnation of menstrual blood in the uterus, thereby improving dysmenorrhea. In a study on the effect of curcumin on the Severity and duration of dysmenorrhea, curcumin was found to be effective in reducing the severity and duration of pain caused by dysmenorrhea. Other studies have also found that curcumin can inhibit the occurrence and development of endometriosis and improve related infertility by affecting the growth, proliferation, apoptosis, migration, invasion, inflammatory response, angiogenesis, estrogen synthesis and other aspects of ectopic endometrial cells.

• Liver care.

Curcumin can improve the activity of alcohol dehydrogenase and acetaldehyde dehydrogenase, enhance the body’s ability to decompose acetaldehyde, thus inhibiting the increase of acetaldehyde concentration in the body after drinking, helping to detoxify the liver and reduce the burden on the liver. In addition, curcumin also has special antioxidant and inhibition of NF-kB transcription factors, so as to repair liver cells, restore liver function, and prevent a variety of toxins from damaging the liver.

• Improves memory.

Curcumin can significantly reduce the synthesis of proteins in the regions of the human brain that control memory and emotional functions, and at the same time, it has anti-amyloid formation, aggregation and promotion of clearance, so it has become a promising multi-target bioactive drug for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.

It is choleretic. Curcumin can increase bile production and secretion, promote gallbladder contraction and so on.

Reduce blood lipids. Curcumin can reduce the level of total cholesterol and triglyceride (TG) in blood, increase the level of apolipoprotein A, reduce lipid peroxidation in blood and liver, promote the metabolism of low density lipoprotein (LDL) and lipoprotein (a) in liver and adrenal gland, increase the excretion of LDL by gallbladder, and inhibit the uptake of LDL by spleen. Thus play a role in lowering blood lipids and anti-atherosclerosis.

Improves heart function. Curcumin can reduce myocardial ischemic changes induced by isoproterenol, improve myocardial hypoxia tolerance, and have a certain protective effect on myocardial ischemic injury.

Prevent HIV response. Curcumin has antiviral activity, mainly by inhibiting human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) long terminal repeat (HIV LTR) activity, inhibiting viral replication-related protease (PR) and integrase (IN), and inhibiting histone acetyltransferase (HAT) acetylation of HIV histones and trans-acting factors (tat). It can inhibit HIV.

Regarding the supervision of curcumin, countries have also introduced corresponding standard regulations:

• China

GB 1886.76-2015 National Food safety standard food additive curcumin; GB 2760-2014 Food Safety National standard Food additives use standard; The functional type of curcumin is colorant.

• United States

Curcumin has passed GRAS certification (GRN No.822, 686, 460). GRN No.822: Curcumin can be used as an ingredient in a variety of food categories, excluding infant formula and foods regulated by the United States Department of Agriculture, in the range of 0.5-100 mg/100g; GRN No.686: Curcumin in turmeric (Curcuma longa L.) can be used as a nutritional supplement in yogurt, nutrition bars, smoothies and medical foods, providing up to 60 mg of curcumin per serving; GRN No.460: Curcumin compounds purified from turmeric (Curcuma longa L.) can be used as flavorings, flavorings, or ingredients in baked goods, soups, snack foods, imitation dairy products, and seasonings in amounts up to 20 mg per serving.

• European Union

The expert panel agreed with JECFA that curcumin is not carcinogenic and also dismissed concerns about its genotoxicity. The current database supports an ADI (allowable daily intake) value of 3 mg/kg bw/ day based on reproductive toxicity studies.

• South Korea

Curcumin is a food additive, yellow-dark reddish brown liquid, block, powder or paste, with a slight characteristic odor, mainly used as a coloring agent, diluent, stabilizer or solvent can be added to adjust the color value and maintain quality; It should not be used in the following foods: natural foods (meat, fish and shellfish, fruits, vegetables, algae, legumes and beans and their simple processed foods (peeled, cut, etc.); Tea; Coffee; Chili powder, chili shreds; Pickle products; Chili sauce, seasoned chili sauce; Vinegar.

• Japan

Curcumin is a pre-existing food additive, mainly used for coloring.

The application fields of curcumin mainly include food, medicine and livestock and poultry breeding, and food is mainly used for food dyeing and preservation; In the field of medicine, curcumin is regarded as a homologous raw material with good medicinal value, and has certain positive effects on the prevention and treatment of chronic diseases and cancer. In livestock breeding, the addition of curcumin to feed can improve the production performance and disease prevention ability of animals, and can effectively improve the quality and safety of livestock and poultry products.

Application in food field

• Preservation.

Curcumin is a plant polyphenolic compound with strong antioxidant and antiseptic properties. Modern research has found that substances such as microcapsules, electrospinning, nanocomplexation and colloids containing curcumin can maintain their antibacterial and antioxidant properties and extend the shelf life of food.

• Pigment.

Curcumin is a natural pigment prescribed in the National Standard for the Use of Food Additives for Food Safety (GB 2760-2014) and is widely used in the food industry. China began to study and apply curcumin in the middle and late 1980s, and water soluble and oil soluble curcumin products have been developed in China.

Healthcare applications

In the field of traditional Chinese medicine, “Compendium of Materia Medica” states that turmeric is warm, spicy and bitter, and has a variety of medicinal values, including activating qi and blood, treating dysmenorrhea and amenorrhea, relieving pain and swelling pain, regulating liver and gallbladder diseases and treating rheumatism. In addition, curcumin has also been found to be used to prevent or treat some chronic diseases, neurological disorders such as rhinitis, anorexia and so on.

At present, curcumin is widely used in the health care products industry on the market, mainly to protect the liver and gallbladder, relieve traumatic arthritis, and the dosage forms are mainly concentrated in capsules, tablets, oral agents, granules, etc., and a considerable part of them are soft candy products. In addition, the potential of curcumin in cancer treatment has been concerned by medical researchers, and gradually applied to the medical field in the form of cancer prevention agents. However, the application range of curcumin products in the field of medicine and health care products is still relatively limited, and the product form is relatively single. In the future, the application of curcumin in the field of medicine and health care products should be deeply explored, and more products with different effects and different dosage forms should be developed.

Curcumin has a long history of research and wide application. As a natural colorant, it has been widely used as a pigment in beverage, pasta, compound seasoning and other industries. However, curcumin has some problems in actual production and application, such as low solubility, low absorption rate and poor stability, which leads to low bioavailability and limits its application in health care products and medical fields.

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