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Curcumin and the Inflammatory Signals That Stop Follicles

Curcumin is the yellow diferuloylmethane in turmeric, Curcuma longa. Folli-Activ includes curcumin from turmeric as an oral ingredient, paired in the same bottle with piperine. This essay stays with the inflammatory biology of the follicle and with what curcumin reviews actually report. A hair-count trial of oral curcumin was not among the papers opened for this page. The absorption study that justifies piperine beside curcumin is summarized here and expanded in the piperine essays.

Cytokines that stop a human follicle

Philpott, Sanders, Bowen, and Kealey asked whether immune cytokines regulate hair follicle growth, using isolated human follicles in culture. Dose-response work showed that interleukin-1 alpha, interleukin-1 beta, and tumour necrosis factor-alpha were potent inhibitors of follicle growth. The histology was specific. Follicles kept with inhibitory doses formed dystrophic anagen hairs: the dermal papilla condensed and distorted, the matrix vacuolated, keratinization of the bulb and inner root sheath became abnormal, follicular melanocytes were disrupted, and melanin granules appeared in the dermal papilla. The authors noted that this picture resembles alopecia areata. The firm experimental statement, independent of that comparison, is that these three inflammatory cytokines inhibit growth of human hair follicles in vitro and damage the structure that builds the shaft.

A formula that takes inflammation seriously is responding to that culture result. The culture result names IL-1 and TNF-alpha. It does not, by itself, name curcumin.

What the curcumin literature reports

Aggarwal, Sundaram, Malani, and Ichikawa reviewed curcumin as the compound responsible for a wide set of activities long attributed to turmeric. They state that curcumin has been shown to exhibit antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antiviral, antibacterial, antifungal, and anticancer activities, and that these effects run through transcription factors, growth factors, inflammatory cytokines, protein kinases, and other enzymes. The anti-inflammatory clause is the clause that lines up with the Philpott experiment: inflammatory cytokines are on the list of pathways curcumin regulates in that review, and inflammatory cytokines are what stopped the cultured follicles.

Anand, Kunnumakkara, Newman, and Aggarwal put a second fact next to that pharmacology. Phase I clinical trials showed curcumin tolerated at 12 grams a day in humans, and the same literature showed poor bioavailability. The reasons they give are poor absorption, rapid metabolism, and rapid systemic elimination. They list piperine as the first practical adjuvant because piperine interferes with glucuronidation. Other approaches in that review, liposomes, nanoparticles, phospholipid complexes, and analogues such as EF-24, are formulation technologies. Folli-Activ uses the adjuvant approach: curcumin from turmeric plus piperine from black pepper.

The human blood-level number, at the dose that was tested

Shoba, Joy, Joseph, Majeed, Rajendran, and Srinivas measured serum curcumin with and without piperine. In healthy volunteers, 2 grams of curcumin alone left serum levels undetectable or very low. Adding 20 milligrams of piperine produced higher concentrations from 15 minutes to 1 hour after the dose, with P less than 0.01 at 15 and 30 minutes and P less than 0.001 at 1 hour. Bioavailability rose by 2000 percent. In rats, 2 grams per kilogram of curcumin plus 20 milligrams per kilogram of piperine raised bioavailability by 154 percent, lengthened time to maximum concentration, and shortened elimination half-life and clearance. The authors describe piperine as a known inhibitor of hepatic and intestinal glucuronidation.

Two grams of curcumin and 20 milligrams of piperine are the doses in that pharmacokinetic study. They are not the labelled milligram amounts of a Folli-Activ capsule. The product facts used here give the ingredient names, the capsule count, and the pack prices, not a curcumin milligram claim. The design lesson is still direct: curcumin without an absorption partner produced almost no measurable serum level at 2 grams, and the same dose with piperine produced a 2000 percent rise in bioavailability in those volunteers.

What is not claimed

There is no sentence on this page that says an oral curcumin capsule was the product in a human hair-count trial. Philpott's work is a cytokine challenge in cultured human follicles. Aggarwal's review is a statement of curcumin's anti-inflammatory pharmacology. Shoba's work is blood levels. Together they explain why curcumin is in an oral hair formula and why it is not in that formula alone. The follicle result and the blood-level result answer different questions, and a shopper who keeps them separate will read the label accurately.

Packs on this site

Folli-Activ is the 10-in-1 oral bottle: 90 capsules, brand MY NPM FOLLI-ACTIV. Packs on this site are 1 bottle at RM169, 3 bottles at RM447, and 6 bottles at RM699 with free shipping. Checkout is by card. Curcumin from turmeric is in the capsule next to piperine, which is the pairing the blood-level study measured.

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