Turmeric also known as Curcuma longa is an Indian spice derived from the rhizomes of the plant and has

been used in traditional medicines and as a household remedy for curing a number of ailments including
biliary disorders, anorexia, cough, diabetic wounds, hepatic disorders, rheumatism and sinusitis. C. longa
belongs to the Zingiberaceae family mostly cultivated in South Eastern Asia and India [Ammon HP, Wahl
MA. Pharmacology of C.longa. Planta Med 1991; 57:1-7]. Curcumin has been attributed numerous
pharmacological activities including antioxidant [Sharma OP. Anti-oxidant activity of Curcumin and
related compounds. Biochem Pharmacol 1976; 25:1811-1812], and antimicrobial properties [Negi PS,
Jayaprakash GK, Jagan Mohan Rao L, Sakariah KK. Anti-bacterial activity of turmeric oil: a by-product
from Curcumin manufacture J Agric Food Chem 1999; 47:4297-4300], anti-carcinogenic [Agarwal BB,
Kumar A, Bharati AC, Anti-cancer potential of Curcumin: pre-clinical and clinical studies. Anti-cancer
Res 2003; 23:363-398], anti-inflammatory [Srimal RC, Dhawan BN Pharmacology of Diferuloylmethane,
a non steroidal anti-inflammatory agent. J Pharm Pharmacol 1973; 25:447452], anti-coagulant [Srivastava
R., Dixit, M., Srimal, R.C. and Dhawan, B.N., anti-thromobetic effect of Curcumin, throm. Res., 1985,
40, 413-417], anti-mutagenic [el, Hamss, R., analla, M., Campos-Sanchez, J., Alonso-Moraga, A.,
Munoz-Serrano, A. Idaomar, M., dose dependent anti genotoxic effect of turmeric. Mutate. , 1999, 446,
135-139], anti-diabetic [Suryanarayana, P., Krishnaswamy, K. and Reddy,. G.B., effect of Curcumin on
galactose induced catalactogenesis in rats. Mol. Vis., 2003, 9, 223-230], anti-fertility [Garg, S.K. , Mathur
V.S. and Chaudhury, R.R., screening of Indian plants for anti-fertility activity. Indian J. exp. Biol., 1978,
16, 1077-1079], anti-protozoal [Koide, T., Nose, M., Ogihara, Y., Yebu, Y. and Ohta, N., Leishmanicidal
effect of Curcumin in retrobiol pharma. Bull., 2002, 25, 131-133], anti-bacterial [Bhawani Shankar,
T.N.and Srinivasa murthy, B., effect of turmeric, fractions on the growth of some intestinal and
pathogenic bacteria in-vitro. Indian J. Exp. Biol., 1979, 17, 1363-1366], anti-fungal [Banerjee A. and
Nigam, S.S., anti-inflammatory and anti-arthritic activity of volatile oil of Curcuma. longa. Indian J. Med.
Res., 1978, 68, 864-866]. , anti-fibrotic [Punithavathi, D. Venkatesan, N. and Babu, M., Curcumin
inhibition of bleomycin induced pulmonary fibrosis in rats. Br. J. Pharmacol, 2000, 131, 169-172], antiviral [Araujo, C.A.C and Leone, L.L. biological activity of Curcuma longa, L.Men.inst. Oswaldo Cruz,

2001, 96, 723-728], anti-venom, anti-ulcer [Lee, C.J., Lee, J.H., Seok, J.H. , Hur, G.M., Park, Y.C., Seol,
I.C. and Kim, Y.H., effects of baicalcium, Berberine, Curcumin and hesperidine on mucin release from
airway goblet cells. Planta Med., 2003, 69, 523-526] , hypotensive and hypocholesteremic activity. This
article focuses on the anti-oxidant effects of Curcumin.

Active Constituents
The main active constituents are:

Diferuloylmethane
Demethoxy Curcumin
Bisdemethoxycurcumin
Volatile oils ( tumerone, atlantone, zingiberone )
Sugars, proteins, resins

Anti-oxidant effect of Curcumin

The anti-oxidant activity of Curcumin was reported [Sharma OP, Anti-oxidant activity of Curcumin and
related compounds, Biochem, Pharmacol 1976, 25, 1811-1812] in 1975. The oxygen consumption
inherent in cell growth leads to the generation of a series of reactive oxygen species ROS. These ROS
include superoxide anion radicals [o2-] and hydroxyl radical [OH]. Curcumin acts as a scavenger of
oxygen free radicals [Subramaniam M, Sri Jayan Rao, M.N.A, Devasagayam, T.P.A and Singh, B.B,
Diminution of singlet oxygen induced DNA damage by Curcumin and related anti-oxidants. Mutate Res,
1994, 311, 249-255] [Ruby, A.J., Kuttan, G., Dinesh babu, K, Rajasekharan, K.N. and Kuttan, R, antitumour, and anti-oxidant activity of natural curcuminoids. Cancer Lette., 1995, 94, 79-83] . Generation of
oxygen species can be a boon or a bane as it plays a positive role in energy production, phagocytosis,
inter-cellular signaling, and regulation of cell growth. However ROS may also be very damaging. The
oxidation induced by ROS can result in membrane protein damage and DNA mutations, cell membrane
disintegration which can further initiate the development of many diseases [Valento et al. 2002; Gulcin et

al., 2003c]. ROS are continuously produced during normal physiologic events and are removed by
antioxidant defense mechanisms (Buyukokuroulu et al., 2001; Chang et al., 2001; Gulcin et al., 2002a, b).

It is well known that ROS are closely involved in various human diseases such as Alzheimer's disease,
aging, cancer, inflammation, rheumatoid arthritis and atherosclerosis (Singh, 1989; Freeman, 1984). It is
commonly recognized that antioxidants can neutralize potentially harmful reactive free radicals in body
cells before they The oxygen consumption inherent in cell growth leads to the generation of a series of
reactive oxygen species (ROS. However, non free radical species such as hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and
singled oxygen (1O2) are formed in vivo also. Both oxygen species play a positive role in energy
production, phagocytosis and regulation of cell growth, intercellular signaling, and synthesis of
biologically important compounds. However, ROS may also be very damaging; his damage may involve
DNA and protein content of the cells with lipid peroxidation of cellular membranes, calcium influx, and
mitochondrial swelling and lysis [60, 63, 64]