Best Curcumin Supplement: What Should You Look for?

Curcumin, a powerful antioxidant derived from turmeric root, has been celebrated across cultures for its numerous health-promoting benefits. Its popularity as a supplement continues to grow, with many people turning to curcumin to support various aspects of health and wellness. With so many formulations commercially available, you might wonder: which curcumin supplement is best for supporting your health and meeting your wellness goals?

In this guide, we’ll explore everything you need to know about curcumin supplements, including the different types, challenges with absorption and palatability, and what to look for in the best curcumin formulations. Use the links below to jump ahead to different topics on the page.

The Benefits of Curcumin Supplementation

Curcumin is the primary component of turmeric and is responsible for its vibrant yellow color. Chemically, curcumin is a polyphenol with antioxidant properties and helps maintain the body’s natural inflammatory responses.* The following table highlights how curcumin exerts its many health-promoting benefits. 

These key properties of curcumin support various health functions, including the heart, joints, gastrointestinal (GI) system, and immune system.* Let’s understand how curcumin supports different health functions and why you should consider adding a curcumin supplement in your diet. 

• Cardiovascular health: The cardioprotective attributes of curcumin are closely associated with its ability to benefit cell signaling pathways involved in cell proliferation, apoptosis (cell death), and inflammatory responses.* Research¹ also indicates the potential ability of curcumin to maintain a normal serum cholesterol level.* 

• Musculoskeletal health: Curcumin promotes a healthy inflammatory response to non-chronic musculoskeletal and joint discomfort.* Several clinical trials indicate the role of curcumin in supporting joint health.* 

• Gastrointestinal (GI) health: Curcumin and its downstream metabolites positively influence² the gut microbiota by supporting the growth of beneficial bacteria strains, such as butyrate-producing bacteria.*

• Immune health: Curcumin is a potent immuno-supportive agent that regulates the activation of immune cells.* Curcumin also downregulates the expression of proinflammatory cytokines, which helps maintain the normal inflammatory response.* 

• Hepatic health: Studies³ indicate that curcumin exerts a hypolipidemic effect, which helps to limit the concentration of lipids and fatty acid accumulation in liver cells.* The antioxidant properties of curcumin further beneficially influence various cell signaling pathways, including the NF-κβ signaling pathway, to exert hepatoprotective effects.* 

Back to Top

Types of Curcumin Supplements

Curcumin is used in different forms — in tea and energy drinks, in soaps and cosmetics, as a spice, as a preservative, and as a coloring agent, thus providing multiple potential health benefits. The following table highlights commercially available curcumin supplements for oral intake and topical applications. 

Poor Palatability of Curcumin Supplements

Because turmeric is naturally bitter, it can adversely influence the taste of curcumin supplements. 

Curcumin powder added to juice and other drinks is often considered unpalatable for oral intake. Even isolated curcumin may retain the spiced flavor of turmeric, leading to an unpleasant taste of encapsulated supplements. The liposomal curcumin supplements, though better absorbed than regular curcumin, struggle with palatability because they are recommended to be held under the tongue for a period of time to enhance absorption before swallowing. 

The poor palatability of curcumin supplements is further complicated because a considerable amount of curcumin needs to be consumed to experience its desired health-promoting benefits. As a result, patient compliance is a significant challenge for most curcumin supplement formulations. 

Back to Top

Absorption Challenges of Curcumin Supplements

Curcumin’s bioavailability is inherently low due to challenges associated with its absorption and metabolism. As a fat-soluble molecule, curcumin does not dissolve well in the watery environment of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, leading to rapid metabolism and elimination. Below are several key factors that hinder the absorption of curcumin supplements. 

• Tight binding to mucus in the GI tract: Since curcumin binds tightly to the mucus lining of the GI tract, it delays uptake by epithelial cells, leading to increased susceptibility to auto-oxidation and oxidative degradation, further reducing its availability for absorption. 

• Extensive biotransformation: After it is transported into the epithelial cells, curcumin undergoes extensive metabolism. Phase I metabolism breaks down curcumin into dihydrocurcumin, tetrahydrocurcumin, hexahydrocurcumin, and octahydrocurcumin. These metabolite forms are then subjected to Phase II conjugation with sulfate, glucuronide, and glutathione, which further alter curcumin into forms that are more water-soluble and readily excreted.  

• Rapid efflux into intestinal lumen: Curcumin and its metabolites are rapidly pumped back into the intestinal lumen by efflux transporters, leading to elimination from the body. This reduces the amount of curcumin that remains available for absorption into systemic circulation.

• Minimal Reabsorption in the colon: As curcumin and its metabolites transit through the GI tract, they undergo limited reabsorption in the colon. While gut microbiota can metabolize curcumin, these microbial transformations are unlikely to significantly increase systemic bioavailability. 

Due to these processes, most orally consumed curcumin is eliminated from the body with minimal systemic absorption. To overcome these limitations, advanced delivery systems are often used to improve its absorption and efficacy. 

Back to Top

Strategies to Enhance Curcumin Bioavailability 

Various novel formulation approaches have been implemented to enhance curcumin’s bioavailability and subsequent absorption. These formulation strategies can be classified into traditional and novel methods.  

Conventional Methods

Conventional dietary practices involve taking curcumin with digestible lipids, such as milk, or heating curcumin in oil and then mixing it with food. 

1. Curcumin intake with a fatty meal. Turmeric or curcumin is often mixed with milk instead of water to make the “super drink” Golden Milk or Turmeric Latte. When used as a spice, turmeric is added to curry. Because curcumin is fat-soluble, ingesting it with a fatty meal results in better absorption. 

2. Curcumin intake with piperine. Piperine is the natural alkaloid of black pepper and serves as a bioavailability enhancer for curcumin. Curcumin is often mixed with piperine to stimulate the GI system and to prevent curcumin’s rapid efflux. 

3. Turmeric oil intake. The body absorbs turmeric oil more easily than unformulated curcumin.

Novel Curcumin Formulations

Several pharmacological approaches have been implemented to enhance the bioavailability of curcumin, including liposomal encapsulations, powder nanoparticles, and phospholipid complexes. 

Back to Top

The Most Bioavailable Form of Curcumin

As noted above, the bioavailability of curcumin depends on its transformation in the GI tract and bioaccessibility. Tetrahydrocurcumin, one of the primary metabolites of curcumin, displays pharmacological activities similar to curcumin but it is more stable and bioavailable. As a result, tetrahydrocurcumin is easily absorbed into the GI tract. 

Several studies⁴ suggest that tetrahydrocurcumin is more bioactive than curcumin and appears to be a superior antioxidant owing to its enhanced bioavailability.  

Back to Top

Types of Novel Curcumin Supplement Formulations

The poor bioavailability of curcumin is due to several factors, including — 

• Low water solubility
• Poor intestinal permeability
• Instability at alkaline pH
• Fast metabolism

Although adjuvants, such as piperine and turmeric oil, inhibit or delay curcumin metabolism, novel formulations offer longer circulation, enhanced permeability, and resistance to metabolic processes. Some innovative curcumin supplement formulations include liposomes, micelles, nanoparticles, and phospholipid complexes. 

The bio-enhanced or bioavailable formulations of curcumin are generally categorized into three types. 

• First-generation formulation: The absorption time of curcumin is enhanced by inhibiting or delaying its metabolism.

• Second-generation formulation: Emulsifiers, such as polysorbates, polyethoxylated hydrogenated castor oil, carbohydrate complexes, lipid complexes, phospholipid complexes, water-dispersible nano preparations, and spray drying, enhance the solubility of curcumin. 

• Third-generation formulation: The bioavailability, membrane permeability, and cellular uptake of free or unconjugated curcuminoids is enhanced without using artificial emulsifiers, such as polysorbates. 

Back to Top

Key Features of the Best Curcumin Supplement

You should always look for the following key features when considering the best curcumin supplement. 

TetraCumin,^® developed by Tesseract Medical Research, is an advanced formulation considered to be among the best curcumin supplement formulations. TetraCumin contains tetrahydrocurcumin, and it utilizes the proprietary CyLoc^® – DexKey^® technology — a revolutionary nutrient delivery system that enhances the palatability of the active ingredient molecules, maximizes absorption, and enables micro-dosing. 

The CyLoc^® technology encases each active ingredient molecule in its dextrin fiber delivery cage to mask its unpalatable taste, while maintaining the molecular integrity during the transit through the stomach. The DexKey^® technology releases the active ingredient molecules at the desired point in the intestinal tract, allowing for optimal absorption and bioavailability of each molecule. As one of the best curcumin supplements, TetraCumin® makes curcumin a therapeutic reality, in lesser amounts than previously required, to promote your health and wellness.*  

Citations: 

¹Wongcharoen W, Phrommintikul A. The protective role of curcumin . . . .” International journal of cardiology vol. 133,2 (2009): 145-151. doi:10.1016/j.ijcard.2009.01.073

²Dulbecco P, Savarino V. Therapeutic potential of curcumin . . . . World journal of gastroenterology vol. 19,48 (2013): 9256-9270. doi:10.3748/wjg.v19.i48.9256

³Vera-Ramirez L, et al. Curcumin . . . . BioFactors (Oxford, England) vol. 39,1 (2013): 88-100. doi:10.1002/biof.1057

⁴Aggarwal BB, et al. Curcumin differs from tetrahydrocurcumin for molecular targets, signaling pathways and cellular responses. Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) vol. 20,1 185-205. 24 Dec. 2014, doi:10.3390/molecules20010185