Crystal Engineering of Curcumin solid forms

Curcumin is an active ingredient of turmeric, which possesses wide variety of pharmacological activities starting from anti-inflammatory, anti-malarial to anti-cancer etc. Last two decades or more, research on Curcumin and its metal complexes were rapidly expanded due to its preventive and therapeutic values against tumor and Alzheimer diseases. Curcumin is widely used in Asian cookery, medicines, cosmetics, fabric dying etc. from ancient times. Although curcumin is well-known for its wide spectrum of biological applications, its medicinal application is still out of reach dues to the limitation on solubility and bioavailability. Scientists explored the higher solubility of curcumin via cyclodextrin, piperine, eudragit complexes and solid forms such as polymorphs, cocrystals, amorphous, coamorphous, eutectics solid forms. In this chapter, we have discussed crystal engineering approach to improve solubility and bioavailability of curcumin, which are reported in last one decade. Further we have elaborated present scenario of curcumin based sensors for trace metal ion detection and remarkable succession of curcumin complexes towards drug development from the biological point of view.