---
topic: Turmeric
title: "Bioavailability: Why Your Body Struggles to Absorb Curcumin"
order: 2
description: "The bioavailability problem with curcumin and the strategies researchers have tried to overcome it, including piperine, lipid formulations, and nanoparticles."
question: "How can I absorb more curcumin from turmeric?"
answer: "Black pepper's piperine and lipid or nanoparticle formulations likely raise blood curcumin levels, but the evidence is small blood-level studies, not health outcomes."
actions:
  - "Take curcumin with a fat-containing meal, since it is fat-soluble and dissolves poorly in water [2]."
  - "Choose a curcumin supplement paired with piperine (black pepper extract); 20 mg with 2 g curcumin raised blood levels in 10 volunteers [1]."
  - "For systemic effects, pick an enhanced-absorption form: phospholipid complexes (phytosomes) absorbed about 29 times more than plain curcumin in human studies [3]."
cautions:
  - "Higher blood levels do not prove health benefit; these studies measured absorption, not outcomes."
  - "Plain turmeric or unformulated curcumin at dietary doses is unlikely to reach therapeutic blood levels [2]."
confidence: 3
confidenceNote: "Piperine rests on one 10-person crossover whose 2,000% gain was not replicated at that size; formulation gains come from review articles."
evidenceSummary:
  rctCount: 1
  observationalCount: 0
  metaAnalysisCount: 0
  totalParticipants: "10"
  replicated: false
  newestStudyYear: 2014
references:
  - id: "1"
    pmid: "9619120"
    title: "Influence of piperine on the pharmacokinetics of curcumin in animals and human volunteers"
    authors: "Shoba G, Joy D, Joseph T, Majeed M, Rajendran R, Srinivas PS"
    year: 1998
    journal: "Planta Medica"
  - id: "2"
    pmid: "17999464"
    title: "Bioavailability of curcumin: problems and promises"
    authors: "Anand P, Kunnumakkara AB, Newman RA, Aggarwal BB"
    year: 2007
    journal: "Molecular Pharmaceutics"
  - id: "3"
    pmid: "24520218"
    title: "Recent developments in delivery, bioavailability, absorption and metabolism of curcumin: the golden pigment from golden spice"
    authors: "Prasad S, Tyagi AK, Aggarwal BB"
    year: 2014
    journal: "Cancer Research and Treatment"
---

Curcumin has impressive effects in lab studies, but there's a catch: your body has a hard time absorbing it. When you eat turmeric or take a basic curcumin supplement, very little of it reaches your bloodstream. In one study, a 2 g dose of curcumin on its own gave serum levels in people that were undetectable or very low [1]. This is called low **bioavailability**, and reviewers describe it as one of the major problems with curcumin [2][3].

The good news is that solutions have been tried. The most well-known is **black pepper** — specifically, its compound piperine — which in one small study raised the bioavailability of curcumin by 2,000% in healthy volunteers [1]. Taking curcumin with fats is also widely suggested, since curcumin is fat-soluble.

<!-- more -->

## Why curcumin is so poorly absorbed

A review of curcumin's pharmacology attributes its low blood and tissue levels to three problems: poor absorption, rapid metabolism, and rapid elimination from the body [2].

1. **Poor absorption.** Curcumin is hydrophobic, meaning it doesn't dissolve well in water. Since your gut is a water-based environment, this limits how much gets absorbed through the intestinal lining.

2. **Rapid metabolism.** Curcumin is broken down quickly in the liver and the intestinal wall [1]. The process involves glucuronidation, which attaches a sugar group to the curcumin molecule so that it can be cleared from the body.

3. **Fast elimination.** Whatever curcumin does make it into the blood is cleared quickly [2].

The result: after a 2 g oral dose of curcumin alone, serum levels in human volunteers were either undetectable or very low [1].

## Strategies that have been tested

**Piperine (black pepper extract)** is the most studied enhancer. Shoba et al. found that 20 mg of piperine taken alongside 2 g of curcumin raised curcumin's bioavailability by 2,000% in human volunteers, and by 154% in rats, with no adverse effects reported [1]. Piperine is a known inhibitor of glucuronidation — the process in the liver and gut wall that deactivates curcumin — so it gives curcumin more time in its active form.

**Lipid-based formulations.** Reviewers list liposomal curcumin and curcumin-phospholipid complexes among the approaches used to improve curcumin's bioavailability [2]. Some commercial products built on these designs report much higher blood levels than plain curcumin.

**Nanoparticle formulations** shrink curcumin to very small particle sizes, which is meant to improve its dissolution and absorption. Curcumin nanoparticles and structural analogues of curcumin (such as EF-24) are among the other approaches that have been tried [2], and a later review discussed the various curcumin formulations currently available [3].

<!-- research -->

## Peer-reviewed evidence

Shoba et al. (1998) studied the effect of piperine on the pharmacokinetics of curcumin in rats and in healthy human volunteers [1]. Curcumin on its own is poorly bioavailable because of rapid metabolism in the liver and intestinal wall, and piperine is a known inhibitor of hepatic and intestinal glucuronidation. In rats, 20 mg/kg of piperine given with a high dose of curcumin (2 g/kg) increased the serum concentration of curcumin for a short period of 1–2 hours and increased bioavailability by 154%. In humans, a 2 g dose of curcumin alone gave serum levels that were either undetectable or very low, while adding 20 mg of piperine produced much higher concentrations from 0.25 to 1 hour after the dose (P < 0.01 at 0.25 and 0.5 hours; P < 0.001 at 1 hour); the increase in bioavailability was 2,000%. The authors reported no adverse effects. The 2,000% figure is widely cited, but it comes from a single small study of healthy volunteers over a short observation period.

Anand et al. (2007) reviewed curcumin's bioavailability [2]. Curcumin has anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antiproliferative, and antiangiogenic activities, and Phase I clinical trials have shown it to be safe even at high doses (12 g/day) in humans, but it exhibits poor bioavailability. The major reasons for low plasma and tissue levels appear to be poor absorption, rapid metabolism, and rapid systemic elimination. The approaches that had been tried to improve bioavailability were, first, adjuvants such as piperine that interfere with glucuronidation; second, liposomal curcumin; third, curcumin nanoparticles; fourth, curcumin-phospholipid complexes; and fifth, structural analogues of curcumin such as EF-24, which has been reported to be absorbed rapidly. The authors note that, despite the lower bioavailability, curcumin's therapeutic efficacy against various human diseases has been documented, and they expect enhanced bioavailability to bring it to the forefront of therapeutic agents.

Prasad et al. (2014) reviewed how curcumin should be delivered in vivo, how bioavailable it is, how well it is absorbed, and how it is metabolized, and discussed the curcumin formulations currently available [3]. They note that bioavailability is perceived as one of the major problems with curcumin, and that over one hundred clinical studies have been carried out with it.

The practical takeaway from the literature: unformulated curcumin is poorly absorbed, and a plain dose gives very low blood levels. If you want systemic exposure, the approaches that have been studied are piperine-based, lipid-based, or nanoparticle-based formulations. Which formulation actually produces better health outcomes in people is a separate question that these reviews do not settle.