A pinch of Waigaon haldi a day keeps cancer away

Turmeric, an inseparable ingredient of all Indian kitchens, has always been known to have medicinal properties like anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer and anti-oxidant etc. Due to bioactive compounds in it called as curcuminoids with curcumin as an active ingredient, turmeric has also been a part of the Indian medicine system since ages.


Manohar Parchure, who has been promoting organic farming for decades, has brought out an interesting observation about turmeric, particularly the Waigaon variety. He claims

Samudrapur

taluka in Wardha district, where turmeric or haldi is grown as major crop, has registered least number cancer cases. A study by his group has shown that there were just three cancer cases in 2015. The number was 31 in 2018 and considering a population of 1.7 lakh covering 166 villages, it is very low as compared to the national average.

The basic active ingredient of turmeric is curcumin. Waigaon haldi contains as much as 5-7% of curcumin whereas other varieties across the country contain just 2% or less curcumin. This makes Waigaon haldi, which is grown organically, more valuable. “I am not a doctor, but I can claim people of Samudrapur do not have cancer mainly due to intake of good grade curcumin through food and its other uses like pickles etc for years together,” said Parchure.

Parchure claims curcumin minimizes growth of cancerous cells and side effects of

chemotherapy

as well. “Unfortunately, turmeric cannot be patented as it has been in use for thousands of years in every household in India. Only process patents are available. No wonder, no pharma firms have shown interest in promoting turmeric-based medicines,” said Parchure.

Parchure says he also approached many oncologists treating cancers to advise patients to use turmeric as a supportive or preventive medicine, but many peferred not to prescribe it maybe for their commercial interests. “Though curcumin is the bioactive molecule in turmeric, I advise use of full turmeric as it contains at least 20 molecules that are anti-biotic, 14 cancer preventives, 12 anti-tumour, 12 anti-inflammatory and least 10 anti-oxidants molecules,” claimed Parchure.

Waigaon turmeric has also bagged a GI tag (registration No. 1471) in 2016. Parchure says since India is the largest turmeric producer (78%), it has a ready-made market especially after the GI tag. “We have got all properties of Waigaon variety tested from time to time by Qualichem Laboratories. It also has 5% volatile oil whereas most commonly grown varieties do not have any volatile oil in significant quantity,” he says.

Pankaj Bhagat, president of Waigaon Halad Producers Company Ltd (WHPCL), told TOI that since apparently people in Samudrapur taluka have been consuming turmeric over generations, they must have developed immunity towards cancer. “Sixteen of the cancer patients found in the talukas have migrated here. Records of patients from three primary health centres at Girard, Nanduri and Mandgaon are clear evidence of this,” he said.

Bhagat says Waigaon haldi is much better than other varieties as it is not prepared using pulverization process as locals use kandap yantra (pounding machine) for powdering it. A dose of 500mg once or twice daily is good for human consumption. “We market our product as Curcumina in the form of tablets, capsules and powder for controlling cancer, reducing pain,

arthritis

, reducing possibility of Alzheimer’s disease, various skin diseases and for stimulating

autophagy

,” he said.

Dr Jayant Deopujari, president of Central Council of Indian Medicine, agrees with Parchure that turmeric has many properties that it can be an ideal preventive medicine. “It is also good for skin, diabetics, it stops oxidation of cholesterol and treats digestive disorders too,” Dr Deopujari said.

Retired Justice Vikas Shirpurkar, who has been using Waigaon haldi for some years on the advice of Parchure, says it gives a feeling of wellness and is definitely a pro-health substance.

Binoy Chakraborty from Mumbai says though he is taking chemotherapy for cancer, he has benefited a lot from turmeric use.