Asian Journal
Of Traditional Medicines

Abstract: Curcumin (diferuloylmethane) is a major phyto-constituent of the rhizomes of the plant Curcuma longa, which is widely used as a natural food colouring agent. Currently, curcumin is being examined in phase II clinical trials for cancer treatment. Many pharmacological activities e.g. antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, and hepatoprotective have been attributed to curcumin and, thus, its quality control is a matter of interest. The objective of the present study was to develop a precise, accurate, sensitive and reliable method for determination of low concentrations of curcumin , using spectrofluorimetry. A standard curve of curcumin was prepared in methanol and serum in the concentration range 1-10 ng/ml. The method was validated in terms of linearity, accuracy and precision. Curcumin was also estimated in rat serum after oral administration of curcumin at a dose of 100 mg/kg. The regression data for curcumin in methanol and serum showed a good linear relationship with R²> 0.99 over the concentration range of 1-10 ng/ml. The method gave adequate precision, accuracy and recovery. The developed spectrofluorimetric method is suitable for the estimation of curcumin in biological fluids. It is also concluded that the method is useful for measuring very low curcumin concentrations and is also less time consuming compared with HPLC, which requires a long time to achieve a chromatographic separation.

Key words: Curcuma longa, curcumin, spectrofluorimetry, estimation in serum, excitation, emission