"About Turmeric"

Turmeric(Curcuma longa) is a rhizomatous herbaceous perennial plant of the ginger family,Zingiberaceae.It is a native to tropical South Asia and needs temperatures between 20C and 30C,and a considerable amount of annual rainfall to thrive.Plants are gathered annually for their rhizomes,and reseeded from some of those rhizomes the following season.The rhizomes are boiled for several hours and then dried in hot ovens,after which they are ground into a deep orange-yellow powder commonly used as a spice in curries and other South Asian and Middle Eastern cuisine,for dyeing,and to impact color to mustard condiments.It's active ingredient is curcumin and it has a distincly earthly,slightly bitter,slightly hot peppery flavor and a mustardy smell.In medieval Europe,turmeric became known as Indian Saffron,since it was widely used as an alternative to the far more expensive saffron spice...