Department of Fragrance and Cosmetics, College of Pharmacy, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
J Agric Food Chem. 2010 Jun 23;58(12):7376-82. doi: 10.1021/jf100135h.
Curcumin (CUR), a natural polyphenol isolated from tumeric ( Curcuma longa ), has been documented to possess antioxidant and anticancer activities. Unfortunately, the compound has poor aqueous solubility, which results in poor bioavailability following high doses by oral administration. To improve the solubility of CUR, we developed a novel curcumin nanoparticle system (CURN) and investigated its physicochemical properties as well as its enhanced dissolution mechanism. Our results indicated that CURN improved the physicochemical properties of CUR, including a reduction in particle size and the formation of an amorphous state with hydrogen bonding, both of which increased the drug release of the compound. Moreover, in vitro studies indicated that CURN significantly enhanced the antioxidant and antihepatoma activities of CUR (P < 0.05). Consequently, we suggest that CURN can be used to reduce the dosage of CUR and improve its bioavailability and merits further investigation for therapeutic applications.
姜黄素（CUR）是从姜黄（Curcuma longa）中分离出来的一种天然多酚，已被证明具有抗氧化和抗癌活性。不幸的是，该化合物的水溶性差，导致口服大剂量时生物利用度差。为了提高 CUR 的溶解度，我们开发了一种新型姜黄素纳米颗粒系统（CURN），并研究了其物理化学性质及其增强的溶解机制。我们的结果表明，CURN 改善了 CUR 的物理化学性质，包括粒径减小和形成具有氢键的无定形状态，这两者都增加了化合物的药物释放。此外，体外研究表明，CURN 显著增强了 CUR 的抗氧化和抗肝癌活性（P <0.05）。因此，我们建议 CURN 可用于降低 CUR 的剂量并提高其生物利用度，值得进一步研究用于治疗应用。
