Turmeric is easily identified as the spice that gives curries their characteristic bright yellow-orange color. Turmeric is a tropical plant of the ginger family native to India and Southeast Asia. The underground rhizomes of the plant are boiled, dried, and ground into a powder. The spice has a bitter musty flavor similar to mustard. Turmeric has been used in cooking for over 2,500 years and is sacred to Hindus who use it in religious ceremonies, as well as in dyes and cosmetics.

Turmeric is a spice most common to Indian and Middle Eastern cooking, but curries have found their way into many other cuisines including Thai, African, and English. Indian cooks grind fresh turmeric with up to 20 different spices to make a curry blend to suit each

particular dish. These unique blends vary with culture, region, and cook, but almost always include turmeric. Curry powder, as it is packaged and labeled in the supermarket, is not an authentic Indian spice blend, but a standard blend of common Indian spices originally combined by British spice merchants to recreate

the flavor of Indian dishes. Western curry powder usually consists of a blend of six or more spices including: turmeric, coriander, fenugreek, ginger, cumin, pepper, dill, mace, cardamom, cloves, and chili, mixed to a variety of hotness.

Whatever your curry blend, these spices are delicious prepared in stews, soups, sauces, chutneys, and with legume, vegetable, potato, and rice dishes. Powdered turmeric and curry powder is available in most supermarkets. For a variety of curry powder blends, try Indian or Asian markets.

Turmeric has been a part of the ancient Indian Ayurvedic system of medicine for thousands of years. It has been taken internally as a stomach or liver tonic and blood purifier; and externally as a natural antiseptic to treat cuts, bruises, boils, and skin diseases.

Turmeric was also well known throughout history as a food preservative. It¼s thought that the same aspects of turmeric that preserve food may also protect living tissues in a similar manner from natural (and unnatural) degenerative processes such as free radical damage, and exposure to environmental toxins and carcinogens.  

Fact

Doctors are now using turmeric "curcumin" for inflammatory conditions:  arthritis, osteoarthritis, acute infections.   Also for health conditions caused by free radical damage: cardiovascular problems, arterial damage, heart disease, and others.  Turmeric is also used in the treatment of certain cancers.

Many studies have shown the antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anticancer powers of curcuminoids in the herb turmeric.  In a double-blind test, people with rheumatoid arthritis  who received curcumin benefited equally to people who took the drug phyenylbutazone.  In another study, 10 people received 500mg of curcumin every day for a week had a measureable lowering of free radicals in their body.  Still other medical studies have shown that curcumin with its crucuminoids can block the growth of cancer cells. Turmeric/curcumin has been in Ayurvedic medicine for centuries.  

source Turmeric home

  Folklore

• Medicinally turmeric, taken internally, is regarded as a cure for liver and ulcer troubles.  Applied externally as an ointment it heals skin sores.
  

• Asians use the turmeric rhizome for jaundice.  Individual research claims that turmeric possesses liver-cleansing.
  

• Ayurvedics uses the essential turmeric oil as an antiseptic, antacid, aperitif, and tonic in small doses and as relief for spasms in larger doeses.  
  

• Boiled with milk and sugar is used as a cold remedy.
  

• Turmeric is given to stop diarrhea.
  

• Indians apply the turmeric root to leech bites.  Inhaling fumes from burning turmeric relieves nasal congestion.
  

• The turmeric root, parched and powdered, relieves bronchitis.  A paste made from fresh turmeric rhizome is applied to the head to counteract attacks of vertigo.

• And many other Folklores and beliefs are available for research on the web.