Translational Medicine, Research Branch, Sidra Medical and Research Center, Doha, Qatar.
Keshav Mahavidyalaya, University of Delhi, Delhi, India.
Nutr Cancer. 2021;73(2):181-195. doi: 10.1080/01635581.2020.1749676. Epub 2020 Apr 14.
also known as is a traditional Chinese medicine that has been used for many centuries against several diseases. The rhizome of the plant is composed of curcuminoids (curcumin, demethoxycurcumin, and bisdemethoxycurcumin), and essential volatile oils including curcumol, curdione, and germacrone. While curcuminoids have been extensively studied for their antimicrobial, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anticancer properties, the therapeutic efficacy of curcumol is still emerging. Recent studies have shown anticancer properties of curcumol against multiple solid tumors such as breast, colorectal, head and neck, and lung adenocarcinomas. The underlying anti-tumor mechanisms revealed inhibition of several signaling pathways (NF-κB, MAPK, PI-3K/AKT, and GSK-3β) associated with cell proliferation, survival, anti-apoptosis, invasion and metastasis. Besides curcumol, extracts from the roots possess many other terpenoids such as β-elemene, δ-elemene, germacrone, furanodiene and furanodienone with known anticancer properties. In this review, we comprehensively focused on the composition of essential oils, their structure, isolation and therapeutic uses of curcumol to aid in the improvement and development of novel drugs with minimal cytotoxicity, enhanced efficacy, and less cost.
莪术，也被称为蓬莪术，是一种在中国使用了数个世纪的传统中药，用于治疗多种疾病。该植物的根茎由姜黄素类（姜黄素、脱甲氧基姜黄素和双脱甲氧基姜黄素）和挥发油组成，包括莪术醇、莪术酮和吉马酮。尽管姜黄素类已被广泛研究，以了解其抗菌、抗氧化、抗炎和抗癌特性，但莪术醇的治疗功效仍在不断显现。最近的研究表明，莪术醇对多种实体瘤（如乳腺癌、结直肠癌、头颈部癌和肺腺癌）具有抗癌作用。其潜在的抗肿瘤机制包括抑制与细胞增殖、存活、抗细胞凋亡、侵袭和转移相关的几种信号通路（NF-κB、MAPK、PI-3K/AKT 和 GSK-3β）。除了莪术醇，莪术根提取物还含有许多其他具有抗癌特性的萜类化合物，如β-榄香烯、δ-榄香烯、吉马酮、莪术呋喃二烯和莪术呋喃二酮。在这篇综述中，我们全面关注了莪术挥发油的组成、结构、分离和治疗用途，以帮助开发具有最小细胞毒性、增强疗效和降低成本的新型药物。
