Turmeric is traditionally used as a spice and coloring in foods. It is an important ingredient in curry and gives curry powder its characteristic yellow color. As a consequence of its intense yellow color, turmeric, or curcumin (food additive E100), is used as a food coloring (e.g. mustard). Turmeric contains the curcuminoids curcumin, demethoxycurcumin, and bisdemethoxycurcumin. Recently, the health properties (neuroprotection, chemo-, and cancer prevention) of curcuminoids have gained increasing attention. Curcuminoids induce endogenous antioxidant defense mechanisms in the organism and have anti-inflammatory activity. Curcuminoids influence gene expression as well as epigenetic mechanisms. Synthetic curcumin analogues also exhibit biological activity. This Review describes the development of curcumin from a "traditional" spice and food coloring to a "modern" biological regulator.

Curcumin—From Molecule to Biological Function

Curcumin, a component of golden spice: from bedside to bench and back.

https://cyberleninka.org/article/n/1038964.pdf

Biological activities of curcuminoids, other biomolecules from turmeric and their derivatives – A review

Curcuminoids-loaded lipid nanoparticles: novel approach towards malaria treatment.

Members of the genus Curcuma L. have been used in traditional medicine for centuries for treating gastrointestinal disorders, pain, inflammatory conditions, wounds, and for cancer prevention and antiaging, among others. Many of the biological activities of Curcuma species can be attributed to nonvolatile curcuminoids, but these plants also produce volatile chemicals. Essential oils, in general, have shown numerous beneficial effects for health maintenance and treatment of diseases. Essential oils from Curcuma spp., particularly C. longa, have demonstrated various health-related biological activities and several essential oil companies have recently marketed Curcuma oils. This review summarizes the volatile components of various Curcuma species, the biological activities of Curcuma essential oils, and potential safety concerns of Curcuma essential oils and their components.

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Chemical Composition and Biological Activities of Essential Oils of Curcuma Species.

Dose dependence and therapeutic window for the neuroprotective effects of curcumin in thromboembolic model of rat.

Standardization and stability studies of neuroprotective lipid soluble fraction obtained from Curcuma longa

Ciprofloxacin surf-plexes in sub-micron emulsions: a novel approach to improve payload efficiency and antimicrobial efficacy.

Momordica charantia Linn. fruit powder, in the form of an ointment (10% w/w dried powder in simple ointment base), was evaluated for wound-healing potential in an excision, incision and dead space wound model in rats. The rats were divided into three groups of control, treatment and reference in all three wound models, each group consisting of six rats. Wound-contraction ability in excision wound mode was measured at different time intervals on days 4, 8, 10, 12 and 14, and the study was continued until the wound had completely healed. Tensile strength was measured in 10-day-old incision and granuloma wound. Histological studies were performed on 10-day-old sections of regenerated tissue. Powder ointment showed a stastically significant response (P < 0.01), in terms of wound-contracting ability, wound closure time, period of epithelization, tensile strength of the wound and regeneration of tissues at wound site when compared with the control group, and these results were comparable to those of a reference...

Wound-healing property of Momordica charantia L. fruit powder.

Objectives A chylomicron-mimicking lipid emulsion was prepared and loaded with paclitaxel (paclitaxel-CM) and was further grafted with galactose (paclitaxel-GCM) using palmitoyl-galactosamine, which was synthesized by reacting galactosamine hydrochloride with N-hydroxy succinimide ester of palmitic acid. Palmitoyl-galactosamine was used as a ligand for asialoglycoprotein receptors.



Methods The uptake characteristics of the emulsions were evaluated in HepG-2 cells (human hepatocarcinaoma), which express asialoglycoprotein receptors, and MCF-7 (breast cancer) cells, which are devoid of these receptors.



Key findings The incorporation efficiency of paclitaxel-CM was 68.05 ± 4.80% and that of paclitaxel-GCM was 72.10 ± 3.93% when the emulsion was prepared with 7.5% (w/w) paclitaxel/lipid phase. The globule size of paclitaxel-GCM and paclitaxel-CM was 124 ± 8.67 and 96.45 ± 5.78 nm, respectively. The release of paclitaxel from both of the formulations was fairly sustained: 50 ± 3.2% of paclitaxel in 24 h. The cytotoxicity and uptake of paclitaxel-GCM were significantly higher (P < 0.05) in HepG-2 cells than MCF-7 cells, while for paclitaxel-CM cytotoxicity and uptake were similar in the two cell lines. This study clearly demonstrates that upon surface modification palmitoyl-galactosamine remains an integral part of the formulation. Paclitaxel solubility can be improved using optimum paclitaxel/lipid phase ratios. The paclitaxel-GCM formulation recognizes asialoglycoprotein receptors over-expressed on HepG-2 cells.



Conclusions Under our experimental conditions, the proposed paclitaxel-GCM formulation is an ideal delivery vehicle for specific targeting to liver cancer cells, which is anticipated to result in improved efficacy and reduced toxicity to normal cells.

Vikas Jain

Papers

Dose dependence and therapeutic window for the neuroprotective effects of curcumin in thromboembolic model of rat.

Standardization and stability studies of neuroprotective lipid soluble fraction obtained from Curcuma longa

Ciprofloxacin surf-plexes in sub-micron emulsions: a novel approach to improve payload efficiency and antimicrobial efficacy.

Wound-healing property of Momordica charantia L. fruit powder.

Galactose-grafted chylomicron-mimicking emulsion: evaluation of specificity against HepG-2 and MCF-7 cell lines.