Curcumin (Curcuma longa extract) × Iron oral (salts: sulfate, bisglycinate, fumarate, gluconate, polymaltose; heme iron polypeptide, lactoferrin)
MinorHerbal anti-inflammatory agents×Oral iron preparations; antianaemic agents
Updated · Methodology
Mechanism
Curcumin binds iron in the laboratory and reduces liver and spleen stores in animal models, which raised the fear that it would ruin anaemia treatment. The randomised trial that tested this in healthy adults found no impairment of acute iron absorption with bioavailable curcumin, at any of the ferrous sulphate doses studied. The concern has a biochemical basis, not a clinical one.
Symptoms
No clinical picture from this combination has been described in humans.
Management
There is no need to stop curcumin because of iron. In someone with low ferritin on active anaemia treatment, the sensible step is to check ferritin at 8–12 weeks as in any other case, without attributing a slow response to curcumin in advance when it usually has other causes: poor tolerance, dosing with dairy, or unidentified bleeding.
Check the full regimen, not just this pair
Opens the checker with these two drugs prefilled. Add the rest of the regimen and recompute additive risks.
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Sources
- NIH Office of Dietary Supplements: Iron – Health Professional Fact Sheet (2025)– NIH ODS, Iron, Interactions with Medications
- Nutrients: Acute Administration of Bioavailable Curcumin Alongside Ferrous Sulphate Supplements Does Not Impair Iron Absorption in Healthy Adults in a Randomised Trial (2021)– Nutrients 2021;13(7):2300, PMC8308323