Objective To conduct a visual analysis of hotspots and development trends in Curcumae Radix research domestically and internationally using bibliometric software CiteSpace and VOSviewer, and provide a reference for in-depth research and application of Curcumae Radix. Methods The China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wanfang Data Knowledge Platform, Web of Science (WOS) Core Collection, and PubMed databases were searched as data sources. The search period was set from January 1, 2016 to December 12, 2025. Analyses of publication volume, authors, and keywords were performed on the selected literature using CiteSpace6.4.R1 and VOSviewer1.6.20 softwares. Results A total of 1 354 Chinese literature and 77 English literature were included. Shi Zhenggang was identified as the core author of Chinese publications with 21 papers, while Ji De was the core author of English publications with six papers. Chinese research has formed a bidirectional knowledge network of “clinical experience-computational mechanism” represented by “data mining” and “network pharmacology”. English research focuses on “Curcumae Radix” and “molecular docking”, demonstrating an in-depth path of “computational prediction-disease focus”. The research hotspots are rapidly evolving from early-stage clinical efficacy observation to data-driven and computational pharmacological mechanistic elucidation. Conclusion Research on Curcumae Radix has evolved from simple efficacy observation into a systematic exploration that equally emphasizes “clinical problems” and “mechanistic elucidation”, while deeply integrating computational simulation and systems biology methods. Future efforts should focus on establishing a closed-loop research system of “computational prediction-experimental verification”, promoting high-quality evidence-based transformation, thereby driving the transformation and upgrading of this field toward precision medicine and modernized pharmacology.

Curcumae Radix  /  CiteSpace  /  VOSviewer  /  bibliometrics  /  visual analysis