Indian saffron
Meaning of Indian saffron: A trade name for turmeric, a spice that is not saffron, is not related to saffron, and costs a small fraction of what saffron costs.
Definition of Indian saffron
Indian saffron is an alternative name for turmeric, the yellow spice ground from the boiled and dried underground stems of Curcuma longa, a plant of the ginger family. It has long been used for color and flavor in cooking and in traditional medicine across South Asia. The yellow pigments in it, chiefly curcumin, are the fraction that supplements are standardized on.
Is it saffron?
No, and nothing about the plants connects them. The name arose because both turn food yellow and one is affordable, so it has been used for centuries as a substitute and, less honestly, as an adulterant of the expensive spice.
| Name in trade | Plant | Part used |
|---|---|---|
| Indian saffron | Curcuma longa, a ginger relative | Underground stem |
| True saffron | Crocus sativus | Hand-picked flower stigmas |
| Safflower | Carthamus tinctorius | Petals |
What does curcumin actually do?
Less than the volume of research suggests. Curcumin registers as active in an unusually wide range of laboratory tests, against targets that have nothing to do with one another. In chemistry that pattern is a warning rather than a promise, because it marks compounds that interfere with the tests themselves through fluorescence, metal binding or membrane disruption. The practical obstacle is simpler still: swallowed curcumin is absorbed poorly, altered rapidly by the gut wall and liver, and cleared fast, so very little reaches tissue. Trials in inflammatory conditions, in cancer and in Alzheimer disease have not established a use, and formulations combining it with a black pepper compound aim at the absorption problem rather than at any proven effect.
What is worth knowing about the spice itself?
Ground turmeric has repeatedly been found adulterated with lead chromate, a bright yellow pigment added to improve color, and this has been traced as a genuine source of lead exposure in some regions. Culinary quantities are otherwise unremarkable. Concentrated extracts are a different proposition from a spice, and cases of liver injury have been reported with them, more often where absorption enhancers are included. The compound also has mild effects on clotting and on drug-processing enzymes in the liver, so interactions are plausible. Another name for the same plant is jiang huang.
Also known as
Used in a sentence
The patient reported taking Indian saffron capsules daily for joint pain.
Good to know
The name is misleading, since the plant has no botanical relationship to saffron, and curcumin is absorbed poorly and cleared quickly, which is one reason activity in laboratory tests has not translated into an established use.