The findings illustrate the need for improved quality control and enhanced analytical methods
The Global Curcumin Association (GCA), the non-profit trade association stewarding the global curcumin/turmeric market, has recently highlighted the publication of ’Analytical strategies to determine the labelling accuracy and economically-motivated adulteration of “natural” dietary supplements in the marketplace: turmeric case study’ in the peer-reviewed journal Food Chemistry.
Commercially available products are frequently of high quality, but recent analysis by GCA and others has shown that several products in the market do not meet label claim and others, labeled as ’natural’ turmeric extracts, contain synthetic constituents. These findings illustrate the need for improved quality control and enhanced analytical methods.
This paper, co-authored with analytical experts Beta Analytic and Eurofins, two leading independent testing laboratories, reports on GCA’s previous turmeric product testing and proposes an overall approach in testing strategy.
The findings indicate that an orthogonal turmeric quality control approach is preferred, one that uses carbon-14 measurements and curcuminoid content determination by high-performance liquid chromatography with detection in the visible range (HPLC-Vis) together, this being essential for helping improve and verify the quality of products in this category.