Huda M. Younis, Amal A. Mohamed
Turmeric is a common spice obtained from the rhizomes of the Curcuma longa plant. It belongs to the Zingiberaceae (ginger family). The rhizome is a horizontally growing stem that sends roots and shoots from below ground. Turmeric has many uses, including spice, food preservation, flavor enhancement, and coloring. Also, it is used in conventional medicine as a home treatment for many diseases. Turmeric obtains its yellow color from curcuminoids, polyphenolic pigments that dissolve in fat. The primary curcuminoid form in turmeric is curcumin or diferuloylmethane (1,7-bis (4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl)-1,6-heptadiene-3,5-dione). It is the most active element and is responsible for its biological characteristics. Curcumin exhibits significant benefits in many human disease treatments. Generally, curcumin is beneficial to human health due to its therapeutic characteristics. These involve antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anticancer, antiangiogenic, hepatoprotective, neuroprotective, antidiabetic, immunomodulatory, antimicrobial, wound healing, and cardiovascular diseases. Although comprehensive studies have been conducted on curcumin's ability to treat many human diseases, major challenges remain, especially regarding its therapeutic efficacy and bioavailability. This review presents an overview of curcumin's therapeutic applications, its benefits for human health, and the challenges to its broad use. It also highlighted existing solutions and approaches to enhance curcumin's therapeutic potential.