Curcumin,from health product to medicine / 中国药理学与毒理学杂志

ABSTRACT

Curcumin is the principal curcuminoid of the rhizomes of Curcuma longa(turmeric,Jiang Huang), which has more than 6000 years of application history in India and other Asian countries. At present,curcumin is sold as an herbal supplement,cosmetics ingredient,food flavoring,and food coloring. In China curcumin is mainly used in food, while in western countries it has been regarded as a health care product and is contained in the British Pharmacopoeia (2017), United States Pharmacopeia (40) and European Pharmacopoeia (8.7th ed.). Curcumin has been proved to have multiple pharmacology effects including anti-fibrosis, anti-tumor, anti-inflammation effects and so on. As its broad biological activities, it is applicated in a lot of diseases such as hyperlipidemia, infection and cancer. Among them, the anti-cancer effect of curcumin is the most attractive. In the treatment of cancer and related diseases, curcumin has been tested in phase I and II clinical trials in several research centers across the world and has been approved by the U.S.FDA into the phase III clinical trial.It has been listed as the third generation of cancer chemoprevention agent by the U.S.National Cancer Institute.Curcumin has been proved to inhibit the proliferation of a variety of tumor cells through regulating a variety of tran-scription factors(NF-κB,AP-1,etc),mitogen-activated protein kinase(MAPK),growth factor receptor ki-nase(PDGFR,VEGFR,etc)and cyclooxygenase.It plays an important role in the cell cycle and further to inhibit proliferation.Curcumin can also inhibit the migration of tumor cells by activating caspase and in-ducing tumor cell apoptosis.However,curcumin still needs researches to confirm its effects and mecha-nisms and find its exact indications. There is still a long way to go to make curcumin better applied in clinical practice in the further.