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Review
. 2022 Jul 12;12(7):639.
doi: 10.3390/metabo12070639.

Reconnoitering the Therapeutic Role of Curcumin in Disease Prevention and Treatment: Lessons Learnt and Future Directions

Bala Mohan Sivani  1 , Mahmoud Azzeh  1 , Rajashree Patnaik  1 , Anca Pantea Stoian  2 , Manfredi Rizzo  3 , Yajnavalka Banerjee  1   4
Affiliations
Review

Reconnoitering the Therapeutic Role of Curcumin in Disease Prevention and Treatment: Lessons Learnt and Future Directions

Bala Mohan Sivani et al. Metabolites. .

Abstract

Turmeric is a plant with a very long history of medicinal use across different cultures. Curcumin is the active part of turmeric, which has exhibited various beneficial physiological and pharmacological effects. This review aims to critically appraise the corpus of literature associated with the above pharmacological properties of curcumin, with a specific focus on antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anticancer and antimicrobial properties. We have also reviewed the different extraction strategies currently in practice, highlighting the strengths and drawbacks of each technique. Further, our review also summarizes the clinical trials that have been conducted with curcumin, which will allow the reader to get a quick insight into the disease/patient population of interest with the outcome that was investigated. Lastly, we have also highlighted the research areas that need to be further scrutinized to better grasp curcumin's beneficial physiological and medicinal properties, which can then be translated to facilitate the design of better bioactive therapeutic leads.

Keywords: Curcuma longa; SARS-CoV-2; anticancer; antiinflammation; antimicrobial; antioxidant; antiviral; clinical trial; curcumin; functional food; nutraceutical; turmeric.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
A flow diagram summarizing the plausible mechanism of action of curcumin.
Figure 2
Figure 2
(a) The turmeric plant, (b) The turmeric rhizome with a yellow-orange interior, (c) The powdered form of turmeric, (d) The chemical structure of curcumin. (e) Demethoxycurcumin and (f) Bis-demethoxycurcumin.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Role of curcumin in the inflammatory signaling pathway.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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