Curcuma longa (common name: turmeric) and one of its biologically active constituents, curcumin, have received increased clinical attention. Insufficient data exist on the effects of curcumin and turmeric on the gut microbiota and such studies in humans are lacking.
Turmeric tablets with extract of piperine (Bioperine) (n = 6), curcumin with Bioperine tablets (n = 5), or placebo tablets (n = 3) were provided to healthy human subjects and subsequent changes in the gut microbiota were determined by 16S rDNA sequencing.
The number of taxa detected ranged from 172 to 325 bacterial species. The placebo group displayed an overall reduction in species by 15%, whereas turmeric-treated subjects displayed a modest 7% increase in observed species posttreatment. Subjects taking curcumin displayed an average increase of 69% in detected species. The gut microbiota response to treatment was highly personalized, thus leading to responders and nonresponders displaying response concordance. These "responsive" subjects defined a signature involving uniform increases in most Clostridium spp., Bacteroides spp., Citrobacter spp., Cronobacter spp., Enterobacter spp., Enterococcus spp., Klebsiella spp., Parabacteroides spp., and Pseudomonas spp. Common to these subjects was the reduced relative abundance of several Blautia spp. and most Ruminococcus spp.
All participants' microbiota displayed significant variation over time and individualized response to treatment. Among the responsive participants, both turmeric and curcumin altered the gut microbiota in a highly similar manner, suggesting that curcumin may drive the majority of observed changes observed in turmeric-treated subjects.
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science
17
6%
Nursing and Health Professions
16
6%
Other
45
16%
Unknown
129
46%
Attention Score in Context
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 121. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 17 September 2026.
All research outputs
#441,153
of 34,752,441 outputs
Outputs from Journal of Evidence-Based Integrative Medicine
#7
of 162 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#7,269
of 373,277 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Journal of Evidence-Based Integrative Medicine
#1
of 9 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 34,752,441 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 98th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 162 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 34.9. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 95% of its peers.
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We're also able to compare this research output to 9 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has scored higher than all of them
