Turmeric & Black Pepper

Here's what the adage, you need black pepper to activate turmeric actually means. While black pepper doesn't "activate" turmeric, it helps increase the bioavailability and absorption of its active compound. Curcumin is the active polyphenol in turmeric at between 3-6% of its weight that is responsible for its it bright orange to yellow color.

The active alkaloid in black pepper, called piperine, inhibits metabolic (CYP3A4) and digestive (P-glycoprotei) enzymes in your liver and gut that would otherwise rapidly break down and excrete curcumin. Consuming as little as 1/20th a teaspoon of black pepper can significantly increase curcumin’s absorption into your bloodstream. Combining turmeric and black pepper with a fat like milk, ghee, or oil also help further increase absorption because curcumin is fat-soluble. 

Consuming turmeric in a tincture will also increase its absorption into the bloodstream and bioavailability. Additionally, berries like hawthorn berry contain quercetin, which also helps increase curcumin absorption due to similar digestive enzymatic inhibition.

I specially formulated my organic metabolic health tinctures with hawthorn berry, turmeric root, and black peppercorns in addition to milk thistle seed, eleuthero root, bilberry lead, cayenne pepper, ceylon cinnamon bark, and barberry root to maximize absorption.