LCA and SLCA on Indian curcuma production

The curcuma (kum-kuma in Sanskrit) is an Indian spice, obtained from the rhizomes of Curcuma plants which belong to Zingiberaceae (Ginger family). The geographical origin is the south eastern Asia and about 40 species of the genus Curcuma are indigenous to India as Curcuma longa L., which is the plant with the most concentration of curcuminoids. The plant produces fleshy rhizomes of bright yellow to orange color in its root system, which are the source of the commercially available spice turmeric. In the form of root powder, turmeric is used for its flavouring properties as a spice, food preservative, and food-colouring agent. Turmeric has a long history of therapeutic uses as it is credited with a variety of important beneficial properties such as its antioxidant, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, analgesic, and digestive properties. Moreover, main constituents of the plant are under investigation for possible benefits in the treatment of cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, liver disorders, and certain other diseases. Among its constituents, the most important is curcumin, because of its more bioavailability. The purpose of this work was to assess the potential environmental burdens caused by the production of curcuma and this analysis was carried out using the methodology Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and the calculation of the environmental damage was done with the software SimaPro 8.0.4.28 and the following evaluation methods: ReCiPe (version 1.11) and USEtox (version 1.04). The studied system is the curcuma production to which a 'cradle to grave' approach was applied considering the raw materials extraction (seeds, cultivation of Curcuma longa L.,… ), the use of curcuma as food spice and its end of life. As mentioned above, this spice has medical functions and for this reason its therapeutic benefit in cancer patients was included in the study through the introduction of a new indicator. In order to represent a more general overview of curcuma production in India, it was decided to compare conventional curcuma production with the organic one, that has gained an important development in the last years, in the sensitivity analysis. Next to the results obtained from the environmental survey, an analysis of S-LCA was conducted with the aim of highlighting the social impacts related to the studied system.