News

Is turmeric used as some kind of alt-medicine thing?

kagis

Ah. Apparently some researcher tried putting out fraudulent papers to make money on some company about two decades back.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curcumin

Research fraud

Bharat Aggarwal, a former cancer researcher at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, had 29 papers retracted due to research fraud as of July 2021. Aggarwal's research had focused on potential anti-cancer properties of herbs and spices, particularly curcumin, and according to a March 2016 article in the Houston Chronicle, "attracted national media interest and laid the groundwork for ongoing clinical trials".

Aggarwal cofounded a company in 2004 called Curry Pharmaceuticals based in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, which planned to develop drugs based on synthetic analogs of curcumin. SignPath Pharma, a company seeking to develop liposomal formulations of curcumin, licensed three patents by Aggarwal related to that approach from MD Anderson in 2013.

FDA warnings about dietary supplements

Between 2018 and 2023, the FDA issued 29 warning letters to American manufacturers of dietary supplements for making false claims of anti-disease effects from using products containing curcumin. In each letter, the FDA stated that the supplement product was not an approved new drug because the "product is not generally recognized as safe and effective" for the advertised uses, that "new drugs may not be legally introduced or delivered for introduction into interstate commerce without prior approval from FDA", and that the "FDA approves a new drug on the basis of scientific data and information demonstrating that the drug is safe and effective".

Alternative medicine

Though there is no evidence for the safety or efficacy of using curcumin as a therapy, some alternative medicine practitioners give it intravenously, supposedly as a treatment for numerous diseases. In 2017, two serious cases of adverse events were reported from curcumin or turmeric products—one severe allergic reaction and one death—that were caused by administration of a curcumin-polyethylene glycol (PEG40) emulsion product by a naturopath. One treatment caused anaphylaxis leading to death.