Effects of Turmeric on Clinical Conditions: Umbrella Reviews of Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

In 2018, an umbrella review of 22 systematic reviews and meta-analyses (SR-MA) with 53 unique meta-analyses was conducted to investigate the effects of Turmeric on various clinical conditions. The study found that Turmeric significantly improved health outcomes for knee osteoarthritis, depression, and metabolic syndrome or dyslipidemia (p-value<0.001, I²<50%, no small-study effects). Other conditions, except for anxiety, Alzheimer's, oral lichen planus, androgenic alopecia, and vitiligo, were also significantly improved by Turmeric (p-value<0.05). However, due to all meta-analyses evaluating less than 1000 patients and 95% prediction intervals including the null value, the evidence was graded as weak. The study concluded that while Turmeric showed benefits in several clinical conditions, the small sample size limited the quality of evidence, suggesting the need for further large trials.