Curcumin is the bright-yellow compound in turmeric that gives the spice its colour and most of its reputation. Everyday cooking turmeric usually contains somewhere around 2–3% curcumin. Lakadong turmeric, grown in the Jaintia Hills of Meghalaya, is prized because it carries far more — figures of around 7–9% are commonly cited. That higher curcumin is the main reason people now seek Lakadong out by name.
What is curcumin, exactly?
Turmeric gets its golden colour from a group of compounds called curcuminoids, and curcumin is the main one. It is the pigment behind that deep yellow stain on your fingers and your pans, and it is the part of turmeric that has drawn the most research interest. When a turmeric is described as “high curcumin”, it simply means a larger share of the powder is this compound — so you get more colour and more of turmeric's earthy character from the same spoonful.
Why Lakadong turmeric is different
Lakadong is a variety grown traditionally in and around the Jaintia Hills of Meghalaya, in India's north-east. The combination of that soil, altitude and growing method gives it an unusually high natural curcumin level and a deep, almost brick-orange colour. It is well enough regarded that it carries a Geographical Indication (GI) tag — the same kind of origin protection given to other prized Indian produce.
| Turmeric | Curcumin, roughly |
|---|---|
| Common commercial turmeric | around 2–3% |
| Lakadong turmeric | around 7–9% (commonly cited) |
Does higher curcumin change how you cook with it?
It does. A high-curcumin turmeric colours a dish faster and tastes more earthy and slightly more bitter, so you often need a little less than a paler supermarket powder. Start with about two-thirds of your usual amount and adjust from there. In golden (haldi) milk and turmeric lattes the difference is obvious — the colour is deeper and the flavour fuller.
Getting the most out of turmeric
One genuinely useful thing to know: curcumin is fat-soluble and is not absorbed well on its own. That is why turmeric has always been cooked into dishes with oil or ghee rather than stirred into plain water, and why a pinch of black pepper is such a common companion — piperine, the compound in pepper, is widely noted to help the body take up curcumin. It is also why haldi doodh is made with warm milk rather than water. The cook's tradition and the chemistry happen to line up.
Our Lakadong turmeric is single-origin and stone-ground, kept full in colour and flavour rather than stretched with fillers.
Last updated 12 April 2026