Turmeric Oil: Benefits, Uses, Dosage & Side Effects

Dr. Josh Axe Vitamin Advisor · 4–5 questions

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Slice a fresh turmeric root and two things greet you: bright orange flesh that stains your fingers, and a sharp, spicy aroma. The color is curcumin, turmeric's yellow pigment,5 and the aroma is the root's essential oil, the oil you're buying in a bottle of turmeric oil.1

The oil is rich in turmerones, a family of aromatic compounds, and it has a research record of its own, from itchy skin to a 3-month human safety study, plus knee-pain trials of capsules that blend it with curcumin.364 The root behind it has a long healing history, and Ayurvedic medicine still knows it as haridra.7

Turmeric and ginger are probably the top two oils for reducing inflammation,8 and when I use turmeric oil, I prefer a CO2-extracted one.910

Did you know?

• Oil distilled from fresh turmeric root differs from dried-root oil: alpha-turmerone is a major compound in fresh-root oil and only a minor one in dried-root oil.2

• In lab tests against skin fungi taken from patients, turmeric oil stopped growth at 1.56 to 6.25 µg/mL and its main compound, ar-turmerone, at 3.90 to 7.81 µg/mL, both lower than the 6.25 to 25 µg/mL the antifungal drug ketoconazole needed.11

• In lab cages, steam-distilled turmeric oil, especially with 5% vanillin added, repelled three species of disease-carrying mosquitoes for up to 8 hours.12

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What is turmeric oil?

No two bottles are exactly alike, because the blend shifts with the root and the way it's processed. In one analysis of oil from fresh rhizomes, ar-turmerone made up 24.4%, alpha-turmerone 20.5% and beta-turmerone 11.1%, while in an oil tested for its anti-inflammatory effects, ar-turmerone made up 61.79%.214 Steam-distilled oil was the form in the mosquito studies,1215 and a standardized CO2 extract of turmeric oil, made with pressurized carbon dioxide, was the form given to women with cervical precancer.137

Because the oil and the powder carry different compounds, their research lives in different places. Curcumin's large trial record, from knee pain to C-reactive protein (CRP), is covered in turmeric benefits; this page follows the oil and the capsules made with it.10

A short history of turmeric oil

Traditional healers in Chinese, Ayurvedic, Islamic and Thai medicine have used turmeric for indigestion, colds, skin infections, arthritis and liver problems.16 Thai traditional medicine still uses it for rashes, itching, tinea and ringworm.11 The bottled oil is a newer way to carry that root. For years, the oil left over from making curcumin extracts was usually discarded, or used on the skin by some, until researchers in India began studying it in its own right, for safety and for cancer prevention.7

I describe turmeric in the language of Chinese medicine: it works to fight inflammation by both nourishing and moving the blood, which in plain English means feeding your tissues and improving circulation so they heal faster.17 Today's researchers have tested the oil on a similar list: skin, itching, fungal infections and inflammation.31114

What is turmeric oil good for?

How turmeric oil works in your body

The best-mapped route runs through your gut: turmeric oil's turmerones help curcumin get into your body, and they're absorbed themselves.

Turmerones have work of their own, too:

• They turn down inflammatory enzymes (proposed in people). In lab studies, ar-turmerone turned down COX-2 and iNOS, two enzymes that drive inflammation.5

• They raise the body's own antioxidant defenses (shown in mice). A month of turmeric oil by mouth raised the antioxidant enzyme superoxide dismutase in the blood and liver of mice, and glutathione in their blood.14

Turmeric oil benefits, ranked by evidence

Ranked by evidence, turmeric oil does the most for joint pain, as curcumin's partner, and for itchy skin, with encouraging results for support during cancer treatment and for keeping mosquitoes away.

Does turmeric oil help itchy skin and other skin problems?

If you or someone you love is on dialysis, you may know uremic itch, the stubborn itch that kidney disease can bring on. In this study, 36 patients rubbed turmeric essential oil onto their skin twice a day, after a patch test to rule out allergy, and 36 used virgin coconut oil, the hospital's standard care. On an itch scale that runs from 5 to 25, scores fell from 15.44 to 13.53 with turmeric oil and barely moved with coconut oil, from 14.94 to 14.75, and by the end, the turmeric-oil group's itch was significantly lower than the coconut-oil group's. Itch eased in 28 of 36 people on turmeric oil and 23 of 36 on coconut oil. The researchers chose the groups rather than assigning them at random.3

Turmeric oil is also popular for dark spots and uneven skin tone. In pigment-producing cells, ar-turmerone lowered melanin production and the activity of tyrosinase, the enzyme that starts it, and it did so more strongly than curcumin.21 Those were cell studies, and they make a diluted blend worth trying on a dark spot, with the dilution and patch test below.21

For fungal skin infections, the lab work fits the tradition. Thai traditional medicine uses turmeric for rashes, itching, tinea and ringworm, and creams made with 6% or 10% turmeric oil killed the dermatophyte fungi behind those infections, including the kind that causes athlete's foot.11 People also reach for turmeric oil for acne, in part because ar-turmerone calmed inflammatory enzymes in cell studies, though acne itself hasn't been studied yet.5

To use it on your skin, mix 2 to 3 drops into a teaspoon of carrier oil, such as coconut or jojoba, about a 2% to 3% blend, the same dilution used for hyssop oil.33 Test it on a small patch of skin for a day, then apply it to itchy or rough spots up to twice a day, the schedule in the dialysis study.3 Stop at any redness, itching or rash, and see who should be careful about allergic reactions. For more options, see essential oils for skin and this turmeric face mask made with the powder.

Does turmeric oil help joint pain and inflammation?

Some curcumin capsules blend curcumin back with turmeric's own essential oil to help it absorb, and that blend is the version tested in the trials below, so their results belong to the blend.304

In a randomized trial of 139 adults with knee osteoarthritis, 500 mg of the blend three times a day for 28 days eased pain and improved knee function about as much as diclofenac, 50 mg twice a day, with no significant difference between them. Side effects were far less common on the blend, 13% against 38%, and no one taking it needed stomach-acid medicine, against 28% of those on diclofenac. People on the blend also had fewer bouts of gas and lost a little weight.4

Curcumin with turmeric oil vs. diclofenac and acetaminophen

People often ask how natural options stack up against pain relievers. Here are the head-to-head trials of this blend.

In the acetaminophen trial, run at a New Delhi medical college with no outside funding, the blend worked as well as the drug for pain, stiffness and function over 6 weeks. The inflammatory marker TNF-alpha fell 74.81% on the blend, significantly more than on acetaminophen, and CRP fell 37.21%, a difference from acetaminophen that wasn't statistically significant.18 In the rheumatoid arthritis pilot, the curcumin group improved most on disease-activity scores and on the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) response scores, significantly more than the diclofenac group.23 Across these trials, including three knee trials in which patients knew which treatment they were taking and the capsule maker supplied the capsules, the drug never relieved pain better than the blend.4182324

If you take a prescription pain reliever, don't stop it on your own; make any change with the doctor who prescribed it.

The blend has a placebo-controlled trial as well. In 201 adults with osteoarthritis, one 500 mg capsule three times a day for 12 weeks improved physical performance tests compared with placebo, and a version that added boswellia, the resin extract behind frankincense, improved both the performance tests and the pain index.25

Can you rub turmeric oil on a sore joint instead? The oil calmed swelling in the rodent studies ranked above, though rubbing it on a joint hasn't been tested in people yet.1426 If you want to try it, massage the skin blend above into the joint; essential oils for arthritis covers other oils for the same job.

Still, oils and capsules work best inside a bigger plan. Unless you remove the root of inflammation, you'll stay chronically inflamed,34 and as I put it on my show, "You cannot supplement your way out of an inflammatory diet, but you can eat your way out of one."35 Build your meals around anti-inflammatory foods, including turmeric itself in a turmeric tea or a turmeric latte, and let the oil support that work.

Can turmeric oil help during cancer treatment?

When someone is facing cancer, the approaches I'm most confident in come first: diet, exercise, prayer, high-dose vitamin C, hyperthermia and nutrients such as vitamin D. Turmeric oil, and the curcumin capsules made with it, can play a supporting role in that plan.

The strongest human result comes from support during treatment. In a randomized, placebo-controlled trial of 60 adults receiving chemoradiation after surgery for oral cancer, in which neither the patients nor the researchers knew who got what, curcumin blended with turmeric oil, 1 or 1.5 g a day for 6 weeks, cut severe mouth sores to 25% and 20% of patients, against 65% on placebo. Severe mouth pain (35% and 30%, against 70%) and severe trouble swallowing (25% and 20%, against 60%) fell too, severe radiation skin reactions dropped to 5% on the higher dose against 30% on placebo, and patients on the blend lost less weight and stayed on their treatment schedule more reliably.19

Turmeric oil on its own has been studied in cervical precancer. In 21 women whose low-grade cervical lesions persisted after antimicrobial treatment, capsules of a standardized CO2 turmeric-oil extract, 0.2 g twice a day for 12 weeks, were followed by regression in 16 of the 19 women who took them; 3 stayed the same, and none progressed. Serum IL-6, an inflammatory marker, fell from an average of 248 to 27.7 pg/mL.13 Over 36 months of follow-up in a non-randomized comparison, none of 18 women treated this way progressed to a higher-grade lesion or cancer, while low-grade lesions persisted in 5 of 10 women who had antimicrobials alone.22 Keep up regular Pap smears alongside it.

Lab and animal research points the same way. Turmeric oil applied to the skin of mice delayed and prevented chemically triggered skin tumors,36 and turmerones combined with curcumin prevented tumors from forming in a mouse model of colitis-linked colon cancer.5 In human cancer cells, ar-turmerone triggered cell death in two leukemia cell lines, though not in a stomach cancer line,37 and it slowed the invasion and spread of breast cancer cells.38 Back in 2017, I noted that turmeric's curcumin and turmerone both show anticancer benefits in lab studies,39 and the findings above bear that out.

If you're in chemotherapy or radiation, clear turmeric oil and curcumin capsules with your oncology team before you start; the reason, and what to watch for, is in who should be careful. My Cancer Support Protocol takes the same approach: food comes first, liposomal turmeric/curcumin sits at the top of its supplement list at 1,000 to 2,000 mg a day with food, one of the core herbs my mom took every day during a recovery that came through nutrition and lifestyle alongside her medical care, and your oncology team clears each item first.40

How to use turmeric oil

Keep it away from your eyes and nostrils, and rinse your hands once you've applied it. For storage tips and dilutions for other oils, see essential oil safety.

Can you take turmeric oil internally?

Yes, in small amounts, if you're a healthy adult. I've written that oils from commonly consumed herbs, spices, roots and berries, including turmeric oil, can be taken by mouth at 1 or 2 drops, while tree oils such as tea tree, eucalyptus and wintergreen are dangerous to swallow.17 I've also said on my show that turmeric CO2 extract, like ginger, peppermint and lemon oil, can be taken in small doses on a regular basis.9

Pick an oil with one ingredient, Curcuma longa, ideally CO2-extracted, and stir the 1 to 2 drops into a spoonful of raw honey or a teaspoon of carrier oil. Oil and water don't mix, so drops added to a glass of water float as concentrated oil that can sting your mouth and throat. Keep it to adults, and stop if your mouth or stomach feels irritated or you get dizzy or nauseated.17 Pregnant and nursing women should leave internal use out. Supervised studies of far larger amounts have a reassuring safety record, covered in who should be careful, though drops in honey haven't been tested directly.

How to buy turmeric oil

Quality comes first with any essential oil. As I wrote in Ancient Remedies, "Synthetic oils are worthless at best and unhealthy at worst."17 Look for these on the label and from the seller:

• Curcuma longa on the label, the turmeric species in the studies on this page1

• CO2-extracted or steam-distilled, the two methods used in the research1312

• One ingredient, 100% pure, and certified organic if it's available

• Lab results for your batch, ideally a GC-MS report listing the turmerones, since the blend varies from root to root214

• Amber or cobalt glass, stored somewhere cool with the cap on tight

What's the difference between turmeric oil, turmeric powder and curcumin capsules?

Turmeric oil, turmeric powder and curcumin capsules come from the same root and do different jobs.

Cook with the powder for everyday use. For curcumin capsules, choose a supplement that includes black pepper or another enhanced-absorption form,10 and the Anti-Inflammatory Reset lists 500 to 1,000 mg a day of a bioavailable form.42 Curcumin blended with turmeric oil is one enhanced-absorption option, and it's the one tested in the joint and mouth-sore trials on this page. For more on choosing capsules, see turmeric pills and turmeric dosage for inflammation.

Turmeric oil side effects & who should be careful

The safety record is reassuring in both people and animals. In a 3-month safety study, 9 healthy adults took turmeric oil by mouth under daily supervision: 0.6 mL three times a day for a month, then 1 mL a day in divided doses for 2 months, far more than the 1 to 2 drops on this page. The 7 who finished showed no changes in blood counts, liver or kidney function, bleeding or clotting time, blood pressure or weight; one volunteer stopped on day 3 because of an allergic skin rash, which cleared within 2 weeks, and another left with an unrelated fever.6 Rats given single doses up to 5 grams per kilogram of body weight, or daily doses for 13 weeks, showed no deaths or changes in liver enzymes, kidney markers or tissues, and the oil didn't damage DNA in standard tests.43 The curcumin and turmeric oil blend also showed no toxicity in rats and mice given a single high dose, or in rats given it daily for 90 days.45

The side effect to watch for shows up on your skin. Turmeric can cause allergic contact dermatitis, an itchy rash where it touches the skin.32 In one documented case, turmeric essential oil caused a rash resembling erythema multiforme, with target-shaped spots,44 and in another, a massage oil containing turmeric caused contact dermatitis.46 In the cervical precancer study, 1 of 21 women stopped early because of itching.13

The interaction rating is Moderate because of lab and animal findings. In lab tests, ar-turmerone slowed platelet clumping, and when collagen triggered the clumping, it was more potent than aspirin;47 in rats, turmeric oil reduced platelet clumping and clot formation, with a mild effect on bleeding time and no change in standard clotting tests.28 My Anti-Inflammatory Reset carries the same caution for curcumin: it can add to the effect of blood thinners.42

If you take turmeric oil by mouth, or curcumin capsules made with it, alongside a medicine, here's what to do:

See natural blood thinners for other foods and herbs with this effect.

Curcumin capsules carry one more caution. Liver injury has been reported in some people taking curcumin formulas made for better absorption,16 and a U.S. liver-injury registry has recorded 10 cases linked to turmeric supplements.48 Curcumin blended with turmeric oil is made for better absorption, so the same caution applies: if you take it and notice unusual fatigue, nausea, poor appetite, dark urine or yellowing of your skin or eyes, stop it and see your doctor. Turmeric side effects covers the powder and capsules in more depth.

The bottom line

Turmeric oil: frequently asked questions

References

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16. National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. Turmeric. U.S. National Institutes of Health; last updated April 2025.
17. Axe J. Ancient Remedies. Little, Brown Spark; 2021. Chapter "The Power of Essential Oils," pp. 146 and 155, and the turmeric entry in the herbs chapter.
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22. Joshi JV, Jagtap SS, Paradkar PH, et al. Cytologic follow up of Low-grade Squamous Intraepithelial Lesions in Pap smears after integrated treatment with antimicrobials followed by oral turmeric oil extract. J Ayurveda Integr Med. 2016;7(2):109-12. doi:10.1016/j.jaim.2016.06.002
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24. Shep D, Khanwelkar C, Gade P, et al. Efficacy and safety of combination of curcuminoid complex and diclofenac versus diclofenac in knee osteoarthritis: A randomized trial. Medicine (Baltimore). 2020;99(16):e19723. doi:10.1097/MD.0000000000019723
25. Haroyan A, Mukuchyan V, Mkrtchyan N, et al. Efficacy and safety of curcumin and its combination with boswellic acid in osteoarthritis: a comparative, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study. BMC Complement Altern Med. 2018;18(1):7. doi:10.1186/s12906-017-2062-z
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35. Axe J. 7 Foods That Quiet Inflammation Better Than Supplements. The Dr. Axe Show. August 10, 2026, at 27:56.
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Dr. Josh Axe, DC, DNM, CNS

Doctor of Natural Medicine · Founder, DrAxe.com

Dr. Axe is a certified doctor of natural medicine, clinical nutritionist, and multiple New York Times bestselling author. He has spent 20+ years in clinical practice helping people heal at the root cause and founded one of the most-visited natural-health platforms in the world.

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This article is for educational purposes. See our medical disclaimer.