Turmeric: A Comprehensive Review of Its Botany, Traditional Uses, Phytochemistry, and Mechanisms as a Functional Food

Objectives: This review aims to systematically summarize turmeric's botanical traits, traditional medicinal applications, phytochemical components and their biological activities, and to integrate botanical, phytochemical, molecular and clinical perspectives to provide a comprehensive theoretical foundation and practical guidance for the future scientific research and clinical applications of turmeric as a functional food. Methods: A systematic overview and comprehensive analysis were conducted on the existing research about turmeric, covering its botanical characteristics, traditional medicinal application value, the biological mechanisms of major bioactive compounds (especially curcumin), pharmacokinetic properties, and the latest progress in relevant clinical trials. Results: Turmeric has important historical and cultural significance in traditional medicine, and its major bioactive compound curcumin is the core of its therapeutic potential, which can modulate antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antitumor signaling pathways. Recent studies have found that curcumin exerts significant biological effects by regulating noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs) and epigenetic modifications, showing a promising role in cancer chemoprevention. Meanwhile, curcumin has specific pharmacokinetic properties, and current clinical trials on turmeric and curcumin have made certain progress, yet challenges such as low bioavailability and limited therapeutic efficacy still exist. Conclusions: Turmeric, as a widely recognized functional food with rich phytochemicals and diverse biological activities, has great potential in scientific research and clinical application, especially in cancer chemoprevention. Solving the key challenges such as curcumin's bioavailability and therapeutic efficacy is the core direction for the future development and utilization of turmeric, and the multi-dimensional research perspective can provide more comprehensive support for its practical application as a functional food.