Role of Curcumin in Disease Prevention and Treatment.

Treatment based on traditional medicine is very popular in developing world due to inexpensive properties. Nowadays, several types of preparations based on medicinal plants at different dose have been extensively recognized in the diseases prevention and treatment. In this vista, latest findings support the effect of Curcuma longa and its chief constituents curcumin in a broad range of diseases cure via modulation of physiological and biochemical process. In addition, various studies based on animal mode and clinical trials showed that curcumin does not cause any adverse complications on liver and kidney function and it is safe at high dose. This review article aims at gathering information predominantly on pharmacological activities such as anti-diabetic, anti-microbial, hepato-protective activity, anti-inflammatory, and neurodegenerative diseases.

Garcinia kola aqueous suspension prevents cerebellar neurodegeneration in long-term diabetic rat - a type 1 diabetes mellitus model.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: The development of compounds able to improve metabolic syndrome and mitigate complications caused by inappropriate glycemic control in type 1 diabetes mellitus is challenging. The medicinal plant with established hypoglycemic properties Garcinia kola Heckel might have the potential to mitigate diabetes mellitus metabolic syndrome and complications. AIM OF THE STUDY: We have investigated the neuroprotective properties of a suspension of G. kola seeds in long-term type 1 diabetes mellitus rat model. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Wistar rats, made diabetic by single injection of streptozotocin were monitored for 8 months. Then, they were administered with distilled water or G. kola oral aqueous suspension daily for 30 days. Body weight and glycemia were determined before and after treatment. After sacrifice, cerebella were dissected out and processed for stereological quantification of Purkinje cells. Histopathological and immunohistochemical analyses of markers of neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration were performed. RESULTS: Purkinje cell counts were significantly increased, and histopathological signs of apoptosis and neuroinflammation decreased, in diabetic animals treated with G. kola compared to diabetic rats given distilled water. Glycemia was also markedly improved and body weight restored to non-diabetic control values, following G. kola treatment. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that G. kola treatment improved the general condition of long-term diabetic rats and protected Purkinje cells partly by improving the systemic glycemia and mitigating neuroinflammation.

Azadirachta indica ethanolic extract protects neurons from apoptosis and mitigates brain swelling in experimental cerebral malaria.

BACKGROUND: Cerebral malaria is a rapidly developing encephalopathy caused by the apicomplexan parasite Plasmodium falciparum. Drugs currently in use are associated with poor outcome in an increasing number of cases and new drugs are urgently needed. The potential of the medicinal plant Azadirachta indica (Neem) for the treatment of experimental cerebral malaria was evaluated in mice. METHODS: Experimental cerebral malaria was induced in mice by infection with Plasmodium berghei ANKA. Infected mice were administered with Azadirachta indica ethanolic extract at doses of 300, 500, or 1000 mg/kg intraperitoneally (i.p.) in experimental groups, or with the anti-malarial drugs chloroquine (12 mg/kg, i.p.) or artemether (1.6 mg/kg, i.p.), in the positive control groups. Treatment was initiated at the onset of signs of brain involvement and pursued for five days on a daily basis. Mice brains were dissected out and processed for the study of the effects of the extract on pyramidal cells' fate and on markers of neuroinflammation and apoptosis, in the medial temporal lobe. RESULTS: Azadirachta indica ethanolic extract mitigated neuroinflammation, decreased the severity of brain oedema, and protected pyramidal neurons from apoptosis, particularly at the highest dose used, comparable to chloroquine and artemether. CONCLUSIONS: The present findings suggest that Azadirachta indica ethanolic extract has protective effects on neuronal populations in the inflamed central nervous system, and justify at least in part its use in African and Asian folk medicine and practices.

Therapeutic implications of curcumin in the prevention of diabetic retinopathy via modulation of anti-oxidant activity and genetic pathways.

Diabetic Retinopathy (DR) is one of the most common complications of diabetes mellitus that affects the blood vessels of the retina, leading to blindness. The current approach of treatment based on anti-inflammatory, anti-angiogenesis drugs and laser photocoagulation are effective but also shows adverse affect in retinal tissues and that can even worsen the visual abilities. Thus, a safe and effective mode of treatment is needed to control or delaying the DR. Based on the earlier evidence of the potentiality of natural products as anti-oxidants, anti-diabetic and antitumor, medicinal plants may constitute a good therapeutic approach in the prevention of DR. Curcumin, constituents of dietary spice turmeric, has been observed to have therapeutic potential in the inhibition or slow down progression of DR. In this review, we summarize the therapeutic potentiality of curcumin in the delaying the DR through antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, inhibition of Vascular Endothelial Growth and nuclear transcription factors. The strength of involvement of curcumin in the modulation of genes action creates a strong optimism towards novel therapeutic strategy of diabetic retinopathy and important mainstay in the management of diabetes and its complications DR.