Herbs with Antidepressant Effects
Scott Mendelson in Herbal Treatment of Major Depression, 2019
Curcuma longa, commonly known as turmeric, is a flowering plant of the ginger family that is native to Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent. All parts of the plant are used for medical purposes, but the greatest use comes from the dried rhizome. A number of sesquiterpenes and other complex phytochemicals have been isolated from turmeric rhizome, but it is richest in curcuminoids and furanodiene. The best studied curcuminoid is curcumin. Not surprisingly, turmeric shares some phytochemicals with ginger.1 Among the many phytochemicals identified in turmeric are ferulic acid, coumaric acid, pinene, sabinene, myrcene, phellandrene, careen, terpinene, cymene, limonene, cineole, zingiberene, sesquiphellandrene, nerolidol, santalenone, turmerol, germacrone, turmerone, bisabolone, trans-alpha-atlantone, stigmasterol, and sitosterol.2 Along with antioxidant and anti-nociceptive effects, both animal and human trials have shown turmeric and its phytochemicals to be of value in the treatment of MDD.
In-vitro investigation of cytotoxicity of West Java Curcuma longa and its potential therapeutic use against breast cancer
Ade Gafar Abdullah, Isma Widiaty, Cep Ubad Abdullah in Medical Technology and Environmental Health, 2020
Curcuma longa (turmeric) is a rhizomatous herbaceous plant in the ginger family (Zingiberaceae). It originated from South Asia and was used as spice and for religious reasons almost 4,000 years ago in India (Prasad & Aggarwal 2011). Turmeric was distributed to tropical and subtropical countries of the world, including South East Asian countries. A study of Curcuma genus in Indonesia shows that there are eight species used as medicinal plant. One of the species is Curcuma longa, which is frequently mentioned by ethnic groups who use turmeric for several diseases/symptoms such as gastritis, cough, and diarrhea. The part mainly used is the rhizome of the plant. The rhizome contains several secondary metabolites that have potential for medicine (Subositi & Wahyono 2019).
Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease
Nicole M. Farmer, Andres Victor Ardisson Korat in Cooking for Health and Disease Prevention, 2022
Turmeric (Curcuma longa) is a root used traditionally in Indian food and herbal medicine. The active ingredient in turmeric is curcumin. There is abundant research indicating that curcumin is a powerful antioxidant and anti-inflammatory agent, with the ability to neutralize free radicals (Dinkova-Kostova and Talalay). Curcumin can decrease NAFLD risk factors (e.g., insulin resistance) via the reduction of lipids in the blood and decreasing the concentration of uric acid. In a study where 102 NAFLD patients were randomized to receive placebo or 1,000 mg/day of curcumin for 8 weeks, it was concluded that curcumin improved hepatic steatosis (determined via imaging and liver enzymes) in NAFLD patients without any issues of tolerance. A prospective cohort study involving 400 mg curcumin supplementation also noted statistically significantly improved liver ultrasound results (Perumpail et al. 2018). Research also indicates that the supplementation of 500 mg of curcumin per day is associated with a significant reduction of liver fat content and improvement in lipid, liver, and glucose markers when compared to a placebo group (Rahmani et al. 2016).
Drug discovery strategies for modulating oxidative stress in gastrointestinal disorders
Published in Expert Opinion on Drug Discovery, 2020
Taraneh Mousavi, Nastaran Hadizadeh, Shekoufeh Nikfar, Mohammad Abdollahi
Curcumin, a polyphenolic derivate of Curcuma longa, is favored for its anti-oxidative, anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial and anti-fungaleffects. Due to its liposoluble nature, it maintains mitochondrial and epithelial membrane under inflammatory/oxidative stress conditions through using lipophilic integration, preserving tight junctions and cytoskeletal proteins, affecting mitochondrial transcription factor, and directly neutralizing free radicals [25]. A recent 21-day study on 540 ducks under ochratoxin A-induced OS, revealed the high potency of curcumin supplementation (400 mg) in getting activity of GPx and SOD and level of MDA, total antioxidant capacity and inflammatory cytokines closer to the control group [188]. Similarly, curcumin improved the OS condition in colitis-associated colorectal cancer models, although it was not considerable [189].
Augmentation of therapeutic potential of curcumin using nanotechnology: current perspectives
Published in Artificial Cells, Nanomedicine, and Biotechnology, 2018
Pulavendran Sivasami, Thiagarajan Hemalatha
Curcumin is a polyphenolic and active curcuminoid present in the rhizome of Curcuma longa. Therapeutic efficiency of curcumin has long been known and its merits and demerits have been extensively reviewed [1,2]. Manach et al. have reviewed the oral bioavailability of 97 polyphenolic compounds and they have shown that curcumin is one among the least absorbed polyphenols [3]. Despite curcumin’s multiple therapeutic benefits, limited oral bioavailability of curcumin continues to be a major challenge in developing formulations for clinical applications [4]. Low serum and tissue levels of curcumin are observed irrespective of the route of administration due to extensive intestinal and hepatic metabolism and rapid elimination thus restraining curcumin’s bioavailability [5–7]. The role of serum proteins, such as human serum albumin (HSA), fibrinogen, immunoglobulin and transferrin in stabilizing curcumin has been investigated [8]. Curcumin continues to undergo rapid hydrolysis but this reaction is suppressed by the presence of either HSA or fibrinogen with an impressive yield of approximately 95%. This indicates that the structural integrity of HSA could have contributed to the stabilization [8].
Cytotoxicity evaluation of curcumin-loaded affibody-decorated liposomes against breast cancerous cell lines
Published in Journal of Liposome Research, 2021
Mahshid Moballegh-Nasery, Ali Mandegary, Touba Eslaminejad, Majid Zeinali, Abbas Pardakhti, Behzad Behnam, Mohadeseh Mohammadi
Biological agents and natural herbal extracts for a long time have been used for prevention of diseases and infection conditions (Eslaminejad et al.2012a, 2012b, Ranjan et al.2013, Ohadi et al.2017). The rhizomes of the perennial herb Curcuma longa is used as a spice in traditional medicine in Asia (Allijn et al.2016). Curcumin as the yellow pigment of turmeric has shown a wide range of bioactivities specially anti-tumour effects in both in vitro and in vivo experiments (Barui et al.2014). It is shown that curcumin may interact with transcription factors, tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), tumour suppressor genes and also enzymatic systems involved in carcinomas including cyclooxygenases and lipoxygenases (Ibrahim et al.2018). But, low aqueous solubility, poor bioavailability and rapid metabolism in the human body are the main problems of curcumin administration in the cancer therapy (Chen et al.2012). To overcome these problems, curcumin was encapsulated in liposome (Alam et al.2012). Liposomes due to their unique characteristics such as small size, hydrophobic/hydrophilic nature, biodegradability and low toxicity have been widely used as drug delivery system (Chen et al.2012). However, the most disadvantage of the liposomal delivery systems is their lack of selectivity (Catania et al.2013).
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