Curcumin phytosome

About Curcumin phytosome

Curcumin bound to phosphatidylcholine in a lipid complex designed to overcome the extremely poor absorption of ordinary curcumin. It is one of several enhanced-bioavailability formulations sold alongside plain curcumin extract.

Plain curcumin is almost comically hard to absorb: oral doses of grams produce plasma concentrations in the low nanomolar range, which is far below the levels that produce the effects seen in cell culture. Phytosome, micellar, nanoparticle and piperine-combined formulations all exist to attack that problem, and they do raise plasma curcuminoid levels substantially — the phytosome data suggest roughly a twenty-fold increase in total curcuminoid exposure. Whether higher blood levels translate into better clinical results is less clear, because the osteoarthritis and inflammation trials using enhanced formulations are mostly small and frequently funded by the formulation's manufacturer. There is also a genuine safety consideration that has grown with these products: better absorption appears to have brought more reports of liver injury.

Sold as

Phytosome capsule, Tablet, Combination with boswellia

Standardised to

Typically 18–20% curcuminoids in a phosphatidylcholine complex, so a 1,000 mg capsule supplies roughly 200 mg of curcuminoids — a product without this marker may not resemble what was studied.

Also known as

Meriva, Phytosomal curcumin, Curcumin-phosphatidylcholine complex

Regulation: Sold as a dietary supplement in the US with no pre-market efficacy review. Italian and other European regulators have issued alerts about liver injury associated with high-bioavailability curcumin food supplements, and some products now carry warnings.

What the research used

The amounts, forms and durations published trials of Curcumin phytosome actually administered.

When it was taken

Each window says whether a trial compared it against an alternative, or whether it is convention and pharmacology. Most timing advice is the second kind.

In the food catalogue

The whole-food form, where one exists. The evidence for a concentrated extract rarely transfers to the food, or the other way round — these are cross-links, not equivalents.