Comparison of Efficacy of Turmeric and Commercial Curcumin in Immunological Functions and Gene Regulation

• Published in: International journal of pharmacology 2009-12, Vol.5 (6), p.333-345
• Main Authors: Chakravart, A.K., Chatterjee, S.N., Yasmin, H., Mazumder, T.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Curcuma longa
• ISSN: 1811-7775
• DOI: 10.3923/ijp.2009.333.345

Curcumin, the active constituent of turmeric possesses anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory and other properties. Earlier we have shown ethanolic extract of turmeric rhizome (ETE) activates murine lymphocytes and induces apoptosis in tumor cells. The present investigation is intended to study comparative efficacy of ETE as used by us and others and commercially available curcumin. The efficacy of these two substances was tested for immunostimulatory, anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant properties in murine model. The expression of a few genes such as perforin, IL-2, IL-6, TNF-aand iNOS related with these events have also been studied at transcriptional level in T-cells. The ETE promoted cell division and functions of murine lymphocytes like production of NO super(-), up regulation of perforin, IL-2 and IL-6 genes in course of functional differentiation much better than curcumin. The ETE acts better as anti-inflammatory agent in DTH reaction than curcumin. The better efficacy of ETE over curcumin could be due to presence of other compounds in the total extract than only diferuloylmethane as curcumin. The present study intends to recommend use of turmeric over curcumin whenever possible.