Bioavailability of curcumin in foods

[Amml]

I'm very curious about the bioavailability of curcumin in foods with Turmeric powder or even fresh roots. I've so far only found studies that concentrated on the bioavailability of pure curcumin together with substances like piperine, Lecithin or microsomal encapsulation, but in foods with Turmeric there are a lot of other ingredients that could enhance the adsorption. Does anybody know some papers on that topic?

If there isn't anything, I mention to do a self-experiment and consume such foods and check my Curcuminoids level in my blood afterwards, if I find a lab to analyse my blood.

 

[WSH]

I'm very curious about the bioavailability of curcumin in foods with Turmeric powder or even fresh roots. I've so far only found studies that concentrated on the bioavailability of pure curcumin together with substances like piperine, Lecithin or microsomal encapsulation, but in foods with Turmeric there are a lot of other ingredients that could enhance the adsorption. Does anybody know some papers on that topic?

If there isn't anything, I mention to do a self-experiment and consume such foods and check my Curcuminoids level in my blood afterwards, if I find a lab to analyse my blood.

I don't think there are piperine-like glucuronidation inhibitors so I would think the BA is still gonna be <5% but that's just a guess, so let us know how your experiment goes and maybe try it again with piperine which DEFINITELY works to MULTIPLY the BA.

 

[Amml]

I thought maybe the fats and essential oils from spices and Turmeric itself could increase the bioavailability

 

[WSH]

Comparative absorption of curcumin formulations (bolding and [...] by me)

The relative absorption of [...] a formulation with volatile oils of turmeric rhizome (CTR) [...] Total curcuminoids appearance in the blood was 1.3-fold higher for CTR

-> volatile oils (synonym for essential oils) apparently have hardly any effects.

Glucuronide

wiki-quote:

Glucuronidation, the conversion of chemical compounds to glucuronides, is a method that animals use to assist in the excretion of toxic substances, drugs or other substances that cannot be used as an energy source

Since fats are an energy source, it's unlikely that they will be substrates (let alone inhibitors) of glucuronidation in the liver according to this quote, I think the logic is that your body wants to produce energy from fat instead of making it more hydrophilic via glucuronidation which would increase its clearance.

Glucuronidation is the main enemy for curcumin.

Don't you have access to piperine, because it really works:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9619120 (bolding by me)

Concomitant administration of piperine 20 mg produced much higher concentrations from 0.25 to 1 h post drug (P < 0.01 at 0.25 and 0.5 h; P < 0.001 at 1 h), the increase in bioavailability was 2000%. The study shows that in the dosages used, piperine enhances the serum concentration, extent of absorption and bioavailability of curcumin in both rats and humans with no adverse effects

That's x20 with piperine instead of x1.3 with essentail oils. If you can't get extracted piperine, you can also use black pepper. Some companies even combine piperine and curcumin in capsules.

 

[Amml]

Thank you for researching.

My idea was that in normal food you have the curcurmin already dissolved in fats and due to normal digestion the fat will be emulgated by the bile and therefore more readily adsorbed than if you would just take pure curcurmin without any fats or food.

Also that coconut oil consists of about 50% MCT fats that are quickly adsorbed and also slightly water soluble and therefore maybe carry some of the curcumin to the liver directly, so this could possible cause an quicker onset of the substance.

The essential oils of turmeric are also something very interesting, since especially ar-tumerone has some neuroregenerative properties. The question here is if any significant amounts reach the brain by oral consumption.

I already heard of these combination products, called Bioperine, but the adsorption still seems to be very low, even if its 20x more than pure curcurmin.
In the package leaflet of a curcumin product, one with gamma-cyclodextrin encapsulated curcumin without any additives (40x better adsorption than pure curcumin), the measured total adsorption was still only about 0,4%, which is nearly nothing compared to the amount.

Another throwback point is that some of the substances in turmeric are classified as possibly hepatotoxic, that means you could possibly damage your liver if you want to take higher amounts of turmeric to reach your curcumin level compared to isolated curcumin.

 

[WSH]

Thank you for researching.

My idea was that in normal food you have the curcurmin already dissolved in fats and due to normal digestion the fat will be emulgated by the bile and therefore more readily adsorbed than if you would just take pure curcurmin without any fats or food.

Also that coconut oil consists of about 50% MCT fats that are quickly adsorbed and also slightly water soluble and therefore maybe carry some of the curcumin to the liver directly, so this could possible cause an quicker onset of the substance.

The essential oils of turmeric are also something very interesting, since especially ar-tumerone has some neuroregenerative properties. The question here is if any significant amounts reach the brain by oral consumption.

I already heard of these combination products, called Bioperine, but the adsorption still seems to be very low, even if its 20x more than pure curcurmin.
In the package leaflet of a curcumin product, one with gamma-cyclodextrin encapsulated curcumin without any additives (40x better adsorption than pure curcumin), the measured total adsorption was still only about 0,4%, which is nearly nothing compared to the amount.

Another throwback point is that some of the substances in turmeric are classified as possibly hepatotoxic, that means you could possibly damage your liver if you want to take higher amounts of turmeric to reach your curcumin level compared to isolated curcumin.

Yes, you're right, it's also important to mention that the study I posted indicates that the half life is only slightly more than half an hour, so there's still a long way to go on the biovailability (and also the half lifes) of curcumoids and flavonoids by extension.

 

[Amml]

Liposomal encapsulation could be a possibility to increase the half life. Some producers of those products claim up to 24h efficiency, but I never found a study or something else that actually measured the curcuminoid levels in the blood.

Nevertheless, most people seem to get relieve from e.g. joint pain when they add Turmeric to their foods. My theory would be that the curcuminoids are highly lipophilic and therefore accumulate fast in fatty tissues and are not detectable anymore in the blood/plasma, but still have a high concentration e.g. in the brain. I would even say that some central analgesic mechanisms are possible because of COX-inhibition, like with acetaminophen.