Medicinal attributes of curcumin and its analogs

From ancient times, natural products have been acting as sources of significant chemical components from which most of the metabolites are obtained. Turmeric is such a natural and popular Indian spice which is being used from centuries in herbal medicines for the treatment of variety of disorders. The yellow colour of turmeric owes to the presence of curcumin which is responsible for its therapeuctic potential and possesses significant biological properties. However its poor solubility, absorption, bioavailability and rapid metabolism in human probably limits its clinical use. These pharmacokinetic properties generally allied to its structure; therefore, researchers gave plentiful attention to improve these drawbacks associated with the native curcumin skeleton by making various structural modifications. Thus, the present assemblage includes recently reported curcumin derivatives possessing various therapeutic attributes along with the patent literature. A detailed description of the design strategies employed for the synthesis and highlights of structure activity relationship along with binding simulations of curcumin derivatives has also been presented in this compilation.