Turmeric Finger

Curcuma longa L. — whole cured, dried and polished secondary rhizomes

Turmeric fingers are the secondary rhizomes, cured by boiling, dried and polished. Curcumin content is the parameter that determines price, and IS 3576:2010 sets the compliance floor at 2% on a dry basis — Erode-type material typically assays above it, so ask for the lot figure rather than the standard’s minimum when comparing offers. One thing worth knowing before you write a specification: IS 3576:2010 sets no volatile-oil requirement for turmeric at all, whole or ground, so a volatile-oil clause is only meaningful if your own process genuinely needs it. The Indian standard also caps heavy metals — lead 10 ppm, copper 5, zinc 25, arsenic and cadmium 0.1 each, tin nil. We do not publish a container tonnage for whole fingers: no reliable stowage figure exists for this form, and the honest answer is that it depends on your bag size and stuffing method.