TURMERIC (from Fr. terre Write, turmeric,

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• LAT

Lat. terra merita, deserved, i.e. excellent

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• EARTH
• EARTH (a word common to Teutonic languages, cf. Ger. Erde, Dutch aarde, Swed. and Dan. jord; outside Teutonic it appears only in the Gr. 'pq'e, on the ground; it has been connected by some etymologists with the Aryan root ar-, to plough, which is seen in
• EARTH, FIGURE OF
• EARTH, FIGURE OF THE

earth;

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• SKEAT, WALTER WILLIAM (1835– )

Skeat suggests that it is a barbarous corruption, perhaps of Arabic karkam, kurkum,

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• SAFFRON (Arab. za'faran)

saffron or curcuma)  , the tuberous root of Curcuma longa, L., an herbaceous perennial plant belonging to the natural order Zingiberaceae . It is a native of southern Asia, being cultivated on a large scale both on the mainland and in the islands of the Indian Ocean . Turmeric has been used from a remote period both as a condiment and as a dyestuff, and to a more limited extent as a medicine (now obsolete) . In Europe it is employed chiefly as a dye, also as an ingredient in curry powder and as a chemical test for alkalies . The root is prepared by cleaning it and drying it in an oven . There are several varieties (Madras, Bengal, Gopalpur, Java, China and Cochin turmeric), differing chiefly in size and colour and to a slight degree in flavour . Some of these consist exclusively of the ovate central tubers, known as " bulbs," or " round turmeric," and others of the somewhat cylindrical lateral tubers, which are distinguished in trade as " fingers," or " long turmeric." Both are hard and tough, but break with a short resinous or waxy fracture, which varies in tint from an orange brown to a deep reddish brown . The colour is due to curcumin, C1,H1607, of which the drug contains about o•3% . When pure it forms yellow crystals having a vanilla odour and exhibiting a fine blue colour in reflected light . It is soluble in alcohol, in chloroform and in alkaline solutions, but only sparingly in water . Paper tinged with a tincture of turmeric exhibits on the addition of an alkali a reddish brown tint, which becomes violet on drying . This peculiarity was pointed out by H .

A .

Vogel in 1815, and since that date turmeric has been utilized as a chemical test for detecting alkalinity . It is of no therapeutic value . In Sierra Leone a kind of turmeric is obtained from a species of Canna .