Curcumin 46X™

What is Curcumin and how does Curcumin work in the body?

Turmeric root, from the plant Curcuma longa, is a member of the ginger family. It has a long history of use in India for promoting health and as a culinary spice. Turmeric contains beneficial compounds called curcuminoids. Curcumin is the main curcuminoid and it exhibits important antioxidant properties. Curcumin and related compounds exert a number of effects on complex metabolic pathways which are at the heart of their health promoting effects. Extensive research is ongoing and together with traditional use knowledge, curcumin may offer benefits in joint and gastrointestinal health. Curcumin is not well absorbed and it can be eliminated. These features may limit its potential and work is underway to improve its bioavailability.

How does Curcumin 46X improve absorption and bioavailability?

Curcumin is known to have low solubility, absorption and bioavailability. It is also appears to be rapidly metabolized and excreted. These characteristics are thought to limit the potential health benefit.

There have been several approaches to increasing the bioavailability of curcumin. Some utilize techniques applied to increase bioavailability of drugs. And some use nonspecific components that enhance the uptake of other constituents of the diet, even if that is not desired. Approaches sometimes yield only modest increases in curcumin uptake.

For example, various formulations of curcumin with volatile oils from turmeric or other lipids have been found to increase curcumin bioavailability by 1.3 to 7.9 times compared to unformulated curcumin.

A novel approach to enhancing curcumin bioavailability is combining curcumin with vitamin C and tocopherols (vitamin E compounds), and dispersing the mixture as a water-soluble carrier—in this case, polyvinyl pyrrolidone (a metabolically inert compound that is often used as a blood volume extender in hospital settings). This proprietary preparation, called UltraSOL™, makes curcumin water soluble and easily dispersed so it can be absorbed by the body and bypass detoxification processes.

In a study of 12 subjects, the subjects who ingested various formulations of curcumin on different days, followed by blood draws to determine blood plasma concentrations of curcumin and the curcumin compounds demethoxycurcumin, bidemethoxycurcumin and tetrahydrocurcumin, the UltraSOL formulation was found to correspond with far higher levels of plasma curcuminoids compared to any other formulation measured. Plasma curcumin i.e. total curcuminoids, from the UltraSOL formula was 46 times higher than that of standard curcumin.curcumin. This is the formulation used in Curcumin 46X™.

“Comparative absorption of curcumin formulations”. Jäger et al. Nutrition Journal 2014, 13:11