When our group visited the wonderful Tse-xin Tamsui Farm near Taipei, one of the activities we did was dye a cotton cloth with the yellow spice/root turmeric. The active ingredient in turmeric is called curcumin and it has a really interesting chemistry. First of all, it’s used in many places as a spice and then it’s used as a natural food or cloth dye (the way we used it). It is extremely non-toxic and there are scientific studies that show you can eat about 10 grams/day! (that’s a lot – about 3 tablespoons) without any harmful effects. As a cloth dye, it is unstable in the sunlight so it fades (and that has to do with its chemistry). As a food dye, it is completely natural so it is not a “chemically” produced food dye (that is a good thing). It’s approved for food use by many state regulatory agencies like the US-FDA and the European Union. But, for me, one of its most interesting aspects is that it has demonstrated to be extremely beneficial in terms of health. At Vassar, we’ve synthesized some complexes using curcumin that have shown to be active against certain tumors and so that is a really promising area of research. Its molecular structure is responsible for why it’s such an interesting molecule with many applications.