The question: Does curcumin, from turmeric (haldi), ease functional dyspepsia better than placebo, and how does it compare with omeprazole? Functional dyspepsia is ongoing indigestion for which tests find no cause.
Who was studied: 132 adults diagnosed with functional dyspepsia by the Rome IV criteria, the standard checklist doctors use: 45 given curcumin, 43 omeprazole and 44 placebo.
What they took: Curcumin (from Curcuma longa), omeprazole or placebo, for four weeks. Neither patients nor doctors knew who had which. The abstract we read does not give the curcumin dose.
What happened: After four weeks, pain scores on SODA, a standard indigestion symptom scale, fell by 16.98 points with curcumin and by 10.53 with placebo (P<0.001). With omeprazole they fell by 14.69. The gap between curcumin and omeprazole was not statistically significant (P=0.302).[1]
How strong is this: A randomised, double-blind trial with both a placebo and a standard medicine for comparison, which is a strong design. It is still one trial of 132 people over four weeks.

The limits

The authors describe curcumin as equivalent to omeprazole. A difference that is not statistically significant does not show that two treatments are equal.
Four weeks is short, and without the dose the result cannot be matched to a product.
This tested curcumin, not haldi used in cooking.
A later trial of curcumin for the same condition has a published correction. Its PubMed record was created on 12 June 2024; the journal issue is dated 2025. We could not open the notice, so that trial's results are left out here.

Who paid for it

Not given in the abstract we read. We have not confirmed who paid for the trial.

Questions people ask

Does curcumin help acidity or gastritis?

This trial cannot say. It was in functional dyspepsia only, and did not test acid reflux, gastritis or ulcers.[1]

Are there other trials of curcumin for indigestion?

Yes. A 2023 trial in BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine tested curcumin and proton pump inhibitors, the family of acid medicines omeprazole belongs to. Because of the correction we could not read, we do not report its results until a doctor has checked it.[2]

Condition

Acidity, acid reflux and gastritis: what Ayurveda offers

Curcumin eased indigestion more than placebo in one small trial. We found no trial of Ayurveda for reflux disease or gastritis itself.

Interaction

Turmeric and acidity medicines (omeprazole, pantoprazole)

A trial gave curcumin with omeprazole and measured indigestion symptoms, not drug levels. We found no interaction study of turmeric with acidity medicines.

Evidence