Turmeric

Turmeric comes from southwest India and is grown from pieces of root rather than from seed. India grows about eighty percent of the world's supply. The roots are boiled, dried in the sun for a week or more, then polished in drums until the rough skin comes off and the color comes up.

We check every product so you don't have to. A turmeric powder only makes our list if:

• Two products, and the page says which is which. The skin and mouth benefits are the powder, used as a paste. The joint and digestion benefits are the extract, sold openly as an extract — a teaspoon of powder does not come close to the amounts behind them.
• The jar says how much curcumin is in it. Curcumin is the part that actually works. If the label doesn't say, the company never tested it.
• It has at least 6% curcumin. Regular supermarket turmeric only has 2 to 3%.
• The brand tests for lead and publishes the results. Some cheap turmeric is colored with lead paint pigment to look brighter. Yes, really.
• The label lists one ingredient: turmeric. Nothing else. Cheap powders are stretched with flour or starch.
• The extract's label states its curcuminoid content. A number means somebody measured it. No number means nobody looked.
• Standardized, and the label says so. That means every batch is made to hit the same strength, so the second bottle matches the first.
• Third-party test results published. A company that pays an outside lab puts the certificate where you can read it. One that doesn't, doesn't.
• One ingredient, plus a carrier if it names one. Turmeric extract and at most a named oil to carry it. Nothing else in the list.
• Nothing added to push absorption. Piperine, phytosome, “high absorption” — anything folded in to force more through makes it stronger than the plant.
• Capsules, not tablets. Pressing needs binders and fillers, so a tablet is never only the extract.

If no product meets these standards, we don't list one. No exceptions for affiliates.

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