Curcumin: A Study of Lead Anti-Cancer Natural Product Curcumin and its Analogues

The severe side effects of currently available cancer therapies led focus on a natural product, Curcumin, which has been traditionally used in Indian medicine from centuries. Curcumin has potential to act against various diseases including cancer. This review describes, Curcumin as safe, multitargeted lead molecule in anticancer drug development, and current advances in chemical modification of the basic structure to overcome its limitations. Curcumin showed various biological activities including cancer chemoprevention and anticancer in vitro, in vivo and Phase I clinical trials. The improved solubility and potency of synthesized monocarbonyl analogues (MACs) and diarylidenylpiperidone (DAPs) analogs motivate the researchers to harness its safe, multitargeted and immune system modulator properties.