Curcumin is the yellow pigment in turmeric and the compound the anti-inflammatory research is actually about. The problem with raw curcumin, and with most turmeric products on the market, is that almost none of it gets past your gut wall. Blood concentrations after a standard dose are essentially unmeasurable.
Phytosome technology binds curcumin to phosphatidylcholine, which lets it hitch a ride through the intestinal wall on the same lipid-transport pathways that carry dietary fats. Meriva is the most clinically studied phytosome-bound curcumin, with published trials reporting roughly 29x higher plasma bioavailability compared to a matched dose of standard curcumin extract.
