Washington, Nov 16 (IANS) A nano-sized capsule being developed by researchers boosts the person's uptake of curcumin, the main ingredient in tumeric powder, and can be used in treatment of several diseases including colon cancer and Alzheimer's.

Clinical trials are checking its safety and effectiveness for colon cancer, psoriasis, and Alzheimer's disease. However, digestive juice in the gastrointestinal tract quickly destroys curcumin so that little actually gets into the blood.

Koji Wada and colleagues note that curcumin is a potent anti-oxidant found in turmeric.

Scientists have known for years that encapsulating insulin and certain other drugs into structures called liposomes can boost absorption.

The scientists prepared the liposomes encapsulating curcumin and fed them to lab rats, says a release of the American Chemcial Society (ACS).

Encapsulating more than quadrupled absorption of curcumin, and also boosted antioxidant levels in the blood.

The encapsulating process could be an answer to the problem of increasing curcumin's absorption in the digestive environment of the gastrointestinal tract, they suggest.

The study was published in the ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.