Good that you posted this one. Since tumeric/curcumin has become such a buzz word in all the latest news on herbal supplements, it's important when purchasing to attempt to select from a bottler that has a long-standing reputation for quality control and purity assessment. Very cheap brands are likely sourced from areas with contaminated soil and often, water, as well and since turmeric is a root, it will be absorbed into the plant easily so the risk there.
When curcumin first began its popularity, the professional supplement bottlers issued statements recommending looking on the label such as this:
A good turmeric extract should contain at least 95% standardized curcumin, a 1000mg daily dose, and no additional ingredients
Another was to look for the trademark Mervia(R) as being reliable.
I just did a quick search on labels from various popular brands and found that it was not common to find the content was just tumeric, standardized to 95% curcumin alone. There were abundant ingredients and fillers added. When the product is in tablet form, that requires fillers and binders to hold it together. Some of the capsule forms still seem to add fillers so it's a dilemma.
Planetary Herbals is a respected brand because of their purity standards... this one has a low ingredient count so several tablets would be required to meet the 1000 mg dose recommendation.[
www.iherb.com]
The one I splurge on is a professional grade product...but again, requires more capsules to reach the recommended daily requirement but since I have a strong focus wanting to keep systemic inflammation low, I feel it's worth it. At this website, you can see the fillers but at least they don't use soy oil and instead use sunflower oil.
[
www.rockwellnutrition.com]
This link gives the product data sheet and lists some studies and many references.
Jackie
