MUMBAI, JANUARY 15: Can eating a little bit of haldi every day keep cancer away? Could the next cancer drug be stirred in spoonfuls of curry?

Well, turmeric is grandma’s home remedy for everything from cold to injuries. Now the humble Indian spice is being tested in differing fashions in two national laboratories — with stunning results — against cancer.

‘‘Turmeric shows a lot of promise in delaying the onset of cancer,’’ says Girish Maru, head of the carcinogenesis division at Mumbai’s Tata Memorial Centre. TMC is one of eight global centres where human trials with a constituent of turmeric are about to be launched.

It all starts from the cages of Swiss Albino mice at a TMC lab. When the groups of five mice scurrying around their cages are thirsty, they sip water laced with curcumin — an anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory yellow pigment that makes up nearly five per cent of turmeric.

The mice have been exposed to carcinogens and the curcumin diet continues for several weeks before, during and after carcinogen exposure.

The result: ‘‘A remarkable decrease in tumour incidence and multiplicity’’ for stomach, colon, skin, liver and breast cancer, says Maru.

The human trials in Mumbai will focus on the prevention of oral cancer in ‘‘several thousand’’ active and passive smokers — the mice have also been exposed to chemicals that mimic diesel exhaust or tobacco smoke.

These trials on cancer survivors, patients and volunteers across the globe come under the aegis of the National Institute of Health (NIH) in the US. American backing came last year, a decade after Tata scientists first started probing cheap turmeric brought from the markets.

For now, it isn’t clear what form anti-cancer turmeric medication might take if the trials succeed. Maybe a turmeric lozenge popped every day to keep cancer away. Or turmeric paste applied inside the cheeks on pre-malignant patches of leukoplakia in reverse smokers — as it’s done at the National Institute of Nutrition (NIN) in Hyderabad.

‘‘Our studies on mice and humans over the last 8-10 years have shown potential biological activity in turmeric to prevent cancer,’’ former NIN director Kamala Krishnaswamy told The Indian Express. She’s not worried about US competition.

‘‘Whole turmeric ingested through diet is better for cancer prevention than isolated curcumin. Of course, if USA develops a drug, nobody in India will take it. They could just eat 1-2 gm haldi every day,’’ she says.

Before Mumbai’s clinical trials can begin, the 20-member Tata team headed by Maru, who has devoted the last 12 years to chemoprevention, is busy developing bio markers funded by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). The three-year development period started 2002 and markers will verify doses taken by volunteers.

‘‘People may be unwilling to apply turmeric paste inside the mouth because of staining, so we have to work out doses and alternative methods,’’ says Maru.

Time is running out and competition is keen. International research backs Indian advances. ‘‘Doctors say that while future study is needed, cancer patients should consider eating food with curry during their radiation treatment,’’ the University of Rochester announced last October, pleased with the health of 200 mice fed a diet of curcumin.

‘‘Curcumin is a substance in curry long believed to have health benefits. It seems to protect skin during radiation therapy,’’ says the university’s research posted online.