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Writer's pictureAditya Kaipa

All that glitters is not Turmeric!

(Excuse my lame efforts at humor again, I was trying to soften the blow. Unfortunately, not all curcumin research is scot-free! There are some unfortunate black marks in recent scientific explorations around curcumin. Gasp! Drama? Read on!)



The drama unfolded in 2013 when A PhD scholar from Northwestern University called out Indian-American biochemist Bharat B. Aggarwal for alleged fraud in his research on curcumin.


Aggarwal’s body of research focuses on the cancer-fighting ability of spices, and he authored over 120 articles about the compound between 1989 and 2020, while he was working at MD Anderson Cancer Center, a leading Texas-based oncology facility involved in both research and treatment.


In his blog dated 30 January, PhD scholar Reese Richardson detailed how at least 30 of Aggarwal’s papers were retracted due to alleged academic fraud, including image manipulation and animal cruelty. 

“Retractions rarely number this high for a single author; according to the Retraction Watch leaderboard, only 26 other people have authored this many retracted studies,” Richardson wrote in the blog that seeks to analyse the “consequences of large-scale research fraud”.

Aggarwal’s retracted articles feature dozens of instances of spliced Western blots and duplicated images, as well as several instances where mice were implanted with tumors exceeding volumes considered ethical.


Aggarwal has defended himself against the allegations, saying through his legal representatives in 2013 that he stands by his research, while admitting that he could have made some “mistakes”.

"Scientific fraud, especially at this scale, is alarming. However, there is a common refrain that instances like this are an exceedingly rare, insular threat and that any harm done to human knowledge by them will inevitably be neutralized by science’s remarkable tendency for self-correction", said Richardson

Indeed, the case of curcumin underscores the complexities and challenges in scientific research. The situation underscores the need for rigorous scrutiny, transparency, and vigilance in scientific investigations. While self-correction is a hallmark of science, instances of fraud can have lasting consequences, emphasizing the importance of maintaining integrity and accountability in research endeavors.

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