Abstract

Curcumin is the phytochemical derived from the bulb of the plant Curcuma longa and is the major component of turmeric. The herb has been used for thousands of years, initially to heal wounds but also to treat diverse conditions in traditional Ayurvedic and Asian medicine. More recently it has also been discovered to be capable of inhibiting the proliferation of cancer cells and/or inducing many signalling pathways affecting chronic inflammation including nuclear factor kappa beta (NF-κB) and cyclooxygenase-2 enzymes (COX-2). The focus of this monograph is to examine the pre-clinical and clinical data for curcumin as well as its phytochemical components.

Keywords: COX-2 (cyclooxygenase-2) inhibitor, herbal medicine, NF-κ ß (nuclear factor kappa beta), phytochemical, structure-activity relationship.

Graphical Abstract