Curcumin

Structure of Curcumin

• Curcumin has three reactive functional groups: α, β-unsaturated diketo-linker, enol moiety two o-methoxy-phenolic groups. phenolic OH is essential for the overall antioxidant activity of curcumin.
• Keto form of curcumin is non-planar while the enol isomer is planar. Enol form has antioxidative activity while keto doesn't.
• Comparison of the energy values of keto and enol isomers of curcumin indicates higher stability of enol over keto form in gas phase as well as in solvent phase.
• The phenolic OH groups are responsible for ROS scavenging activities while the α, β-unsaturated keto-enol structure is associated with the antitumor activity of curcumin.

Biological activity

• Research shows antioxidative activity of curcumin (enol form) by the inhibition of autoxidation of styrene and methyl linoleate in chlorobenzene.
• If the curcumin analogs (derivatives) don't have phenolic OH group then it cannot show antioxidant activity. Therefore, phenolic OH is essential for the overall antioxidant activity of curcumin.

Metabolism of curcumin

• In vivo, curcumin is metabolized into various derivatives such as glucuronides and sulfates reduced curcumin derivatives like tetrahydro curcumin, hexahydro curcumin and octahydro curcumin.
• All these metabolized compounds have the possible biological activity.
• More Informaiton
  • Chemical and Structural Features Influencing the Biological Activity of Curcumin
  • Probing the Environmental Toxicity of Deep Eutectic Solvents and Their Components: An In Silico Modeling Approach
  • Chemical and Structural Features Influencing the Biological Activity of Curcumin

  Derivatives of Curcumin

  

  • Curcumin has various biological properties such as anti-inflammatory, anti-diabetic, anti-mutagenicity-proliferative, anti-oxidant, anti-angiogenic and can also use in the treatment of various cancer and Alzheimer's disease.
  • TNF-induced NF-B activation can be suppressed by demethoxycurcumin and bisdemethoxycurcumin, resulting in an anti-inflammatory action.