Curcumin, which is called Curcumin in English, is a yellow powder from the tuber of Curcuma longa. According to records, people in the Indian subcontinent have been eating turmeric for 5,000 years. Grinding the tuber of turmeric into powder is the main component of condiment curry. Curry is yellow because of turmeric. Curry is an important condiment in Southeast Asian countries, especially in India. Indians also use turmeric to treat stomach diseases or smear wounds to promote wound healing. Turmeric is a commonly used Chinese medicine in China. Li Shizhen's Compendium of Materia Medica in the Ming Dynasty recorded turmeric in detail, calling its medicinal properties pungent, bitter, cold and non-toxic. In addition to wind-heat and carbuncle swelling, the ancient prescription used turmeric to treat arthralgia caused by rheumatism, and it can also treat unbearable heartache, and so on. In 1975, the Dictionary of Traditional Chinese Medicine, published by Shanghai Science and Technology Publishing House and compiled by Jiangsu New Medical College, gave a more detailed description of turmeric, which not only provided Pharmacognosy information of the drug, such as botanical classification, origin, cultivation, type discrimination, identification of medicinal materials, but also contained effective chemical components such as curcumin, Turmerrone and Zingerene. More than ten kinds of compounds, such as Phelandrene, 1,8-cineole, etc., also describe the modern pharmacological effects of turmeric, such as cholagogic, hypotensive, antibacterial and uterine-stimulating effects, and also quote the records of turmeric in various traditional Chinese medicine bibliographies in past dynasties, such as "compendium of materia medica" and "compendium of materia medica".

In 1990s, only high-pressure liquid chromatograph (HPLC) was equipped, but many of them have been upgraded to liquid-mass spectrometer (LC-MS). Due to the application and equipment of these new technologies and instruments in biomedical laboratories studying curcumin, scientists have obtained a lot of solid experimental data, thus drawing an optimistic prospect that curcumin can be used to treat various diseases in the future.
Health care effect of curcumin
1. Turmeric contains bioactive compounds with strong medicinal value.

2. Curcumin is a natural anti-inflammatory compound

3. Curcuma longa significantly improves the antioxidant capacity of human body.

4. Curcumin improves brain-derived neurotrophic factor.

5. Curcumin can prevent cancer.

6. Curcumin can be used to prevent and treat Alzheimer's disease.

7. Curcumin health products are good for patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

8. Curcumin is good for resisting depression.

9. Curcumin can delay aging and resist chronic diseases related to aging.

Application of curcumin in food

Curcumin, as a common natural pigment, has been widely used in food industry for a long time, mainly used for dyeing canned food, sausage products and sauce-marinated products, and its dosage depends on the needs of normal production. The product form of functional food with curcumin as the main component can be general food or some non-food forms, such as capsules, pills or tablets. For general food forms, we can consider some yellow food, such as cakes, sweets, drinks and so on. Curcumin also has antiseptic effect. At present, curcumin is widely used in food industry as condiment and pigment at home and abroad.