Does your mother pester you every night to make you drink a glass of ‘turmeric milk’?
Well, she might be on to something over here as turmeric is also known as a wonder spice. But we’ll talk about that a bit later. Let’s first get to know it a little better.
As we all know, turmeric is a bright yellow spice powder. It is made from the root of a
plant in the ginger family, Curcuma longa. It has been an intrinsic part of the Indian cuisine since time immemorial. Most Indian recipes will always have a pinch of turmeric. It has a
slightly bitter, slightly peppery flavor but is mostly used for its color. Turmeric is what
gives Indian dishes that iconic ‘curry’ color.
Apart from its culinary merits, this wonder spice has historically been a valuable
ingredient in ayurvedic medicines. A lot of its healing superpower comes from curcumin.
Curcumin is a bright yellow chemical component of turmeric. It is the star ingredient of
turmeric that makes it (turmeric) the prized spice that it is.
Here are a few magical powers of curcumin :
- Curcumin is an antioxidant. Now what that implies is this: Free radicals are
constantly being formed in our body because of various reasons. What are free
radicals, you ask? Well, they are highly reactive molecules with unpaired electrons
and so they tend to react with important organic substances, such as fatty acids, proteins, or DNA and cause oxidative damage. This oxidative stress is one of the mechanisms responsible for aging and many diseases. Antioxidants neutralize free radicals and Curcumin, being one, thus, protects our body. - Curcumin is anti-inflammatory. Sending out inflammatory cells is the first response of your immune system when your body encounters an offending agent (like viruses, bacteria or toxic chemicals) or when it suffers an injury. These cells begin an
inflammatory response to trap bacteria and other offending agents or start healing injured tissue. However, there are times when inflammation becomes chronic i.e. it occurs even when there is no outside danger and the inflammatory cells start attacking your own body tissues. Chronic inflammation is seen in the disease process of many conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, asthma, cancer, heart disease, rheumatoid arthritis(RA) and ankylosing spondylitis (AS), and type 2 diabetes. Curcumin is a bioactive substance that fights such chronic inflammation. - Curcumin is anti-bacterial and anti-viral. Turmeric can be made into a paste for
the topical treatment of cuts and burns, and is also used to make a warm tonic with milk to remedy sore throats and colds.
Now that we’ve talked about the fascinating powers of curcumin, I am sure you realize why it might just be a good idea to obediently gulp down that glass of turmeric milk offered by your mother!
Also, it is obvious that we should opt for turmeric with high curcumin content. And that is just where Naturley scores! It produces turmeric with an impressive curcumin content of 4%. Also, at Naturley, it is ensured that the valuable nutrient of turmeric are retained at every step of turmeric powder production.
Here’s how the powder is produced at Naturley :
-
Land Preparation for Turmeric Farming
While preparing the land for turmeric farming and cultivation, beds must be
prepared with 15 cm as height and 1m as the width. When sowing the
rhizomes, there should be a space of 25 cm between two rhizomes. The beds
must be 50 cm apart from each other. Small pits are made with a hand hoe on
the beds with a spacing of 25 cm x 30 cm. Pits are filled with well
decomposed cattle manure or compost, seed rhizomes are placed over it and
then covered with soil. Powdered neem cake is also mixed with soil. The
planting time in India is typically just after the pre-monsoon showers i.e.
around April and May. -
The Process of Crop Growth
It takes about one month for turmeric rhizomes to germinate.
Jeevamrutham, an organic fertilizer, and neem spray is applied at an interval
of every 15 days. At Naturley, all the fertilizers that are used are organic and we do not use chemical NPK fertilizers. During the period of the crop growth, weeding and earthing up is done at appropriate intervals, ensuring good health of the crop and its high yield. After 11 months, when the leaves and stem start turning brown and dry up progressively, the crop is ready for harvest. The land is then ploughed and the rhizomes are extracted. -
The Drying Process
The rhizomes are then put in the solar dryer for 10-12 days. At Naturley, we do not boil the turmeric rhizomes. We believe boiling leads to loss of nutrients. -
Polishing of Turmeric
Dried turmeric has a rough dull outer surface with scales and root bits. The
outer surface needs to be polished and smoothened out. So for this purpose, the dried turmeric is added to the polishing machine. The machine is basically a power operated barrel mounted on a central axis. The barrel is filled with rhizomes and rotated. They get polished by mutual rubbing against each other and abrasion against the surface. -
Grinding
The polished turmeric rhizome is then given for grinding to turn it into
powder form.
Isn’t this entire process of turmeric powder production quite
interesting?
After reading this blog, I am sure you realize that that yellow
powder in your masala container is not a mere spice but a powerhouse in
itself.