Intro and Background
Curcumin comes from the turmeric plant (Curcuma longa). It is probably most commonly seen as the yellow coloring agent in curry- a traditional spice used in Southeast Asian cuisine and medicine.(1) This agent has been used for centuries by different cultures in Asia. For example, Indian medicinal practices have used curcumin to treat anorexia, cough, rheumatism, and other diseases.(2) Hindu medicine men still use curcumin to treat sprains and swelling.(2) Traditional Chinese medicine uses this same compound to treat diseases that are accompanied by abdominal pain.(2) Western medicine has recently recognized that curcumin may have anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, anti-bacterial, anti-venom and anti-viral activities, and possibly the ability to combat Alzheimer's disease.(2)(3)
Curcumin is being actively studied for its ability to decrease angiogenesis, induce apoptosis, interfere with metastasis, reduce cell proliferation and hinder transformation.(4)
Scientific Research
Curcumin has been found to slow tumor cell development (5) and angiogenic processes (6)in vitro and in rodent experiments. Also, curcumin seems to induce apoptosis in cancer cells in vitro without harming healthy ones.(7) However, curcumin has run into several problems in clinical trials because it seems to have poor bioavailability (i.e. it is poorly absorbed into the body and the portion that is absorbed is rapidly eliminated).(8) Researchers are currently working on making the compound more stable by means of nanotechnology and chemical approaches.(8) Research from 2007 showed that curcumin can increase tumor growth in rats fed curcumin. (9) Because of these conflicting results, more research is needed to determine if curcumin is a cancer fighting agent.
Visit our section on Finding Clinical Trials for more information about ongoing curcumin clinical trials.
US Food and Drug Administration Approval
At this time there is not conclusive evidence that curcumin can effectively prevent cancer. For this reason, curcumin has not been approved for cancer prevention by the FDA.
Duvoix A. et al. Chemopreventive and therapeutic effects of curcumin. Cancer Letters 223 (2005): 181-190 [PUBMED]
Araujo CAC, Leon LL. Biological activities of Curcuma longa L. Mem Inst Oswaldo Cruz. (2001) 96(5): 723-728 [PUBMED]
Garcia-Alloza M, Borrelli LA, Rozkalne A, Hyman BT, Bacskai BJ. Curcumin labels amyloid pathology in vivo, disrupts existing plaques, and partially restores distorted neurites in an Alzheimer mouse model. J Neurochem. (2007) Apr 30 [PUBMED]
Aggarwal S, Ichikawa H, Takada Y, Sandur SK, Shishodia S, Aggarwal BB. Curcumin (diferuloylmethane) down-regulates expression of cell proliferation and antiapoptotic and metastatic gene products through suppression of IkappaBalpha kinase and Akt activation. Mol Pharmacol. (2006) 69(1): 195-206 [PUBMED]
T. Devasenam K.N. Rajasekaran, G. Gunasekaran, P. Viswwanathan, V.P. Menon, Anti Carcinogenic effect of bis-1,7-(2-hydroxyphenyl)-hepta-1,6-diene-3,5-dione a curcumin analog on DMH-induced colon cancer model . Pharmacol. Res. 27 (2003) 133-140 [PUBMED]
Lin Y.G., Kunnumakkara A., et al. Curcumin Inhibits Tumor Growth and Angiogenesis in Ovarian Carcinoma by targeting the Nuclear Factor-ºB Pathway. Clin Cancer Res 2007 13: 3423-3430 [PUBMED]
E. Tourkina, P. Gooz, J.C. Oats, A. Ludwicka-Bradley, R.M. Silver, S. Hoffman, Curcumin-induced apoptosis in scleroderma lung fibroblasts: role of protein kinase cepsilon . American Journal of respiratory Cellular Molecular Biology 31(2004): 28-35 [PUBMED]
Polymeric nanoparticle-encapsulated curcumin ( nanocurcumin ): a novel strategy for human cancer therapy. Journal of Nanobiotechnology. (2007) 5: 3 [PUBMED]
Kim SJ, Hellerstein MK. Pharmacological doses of dietary curcumin increase colon epithelial cell proliferation in vivo in rats. Phytother Res. (2007) Jun 20 [PUBMED]
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