Curcumin: A Mini Review on its Synthetic Derivatives

Curcumin is a fat-soluble natural substance obtained from Curcuma longa and finds its applications in treatment of numerous disorders and diseases. Apart from its vast pharmacological profile, it is also used as a flavoring agent in the Asian subcontinent. This has drawn attention of the scientists to use it as an important scaffold to prepare its synthetic derivatives in order to improve the efficacy as well as potency of drug molecules and also reducing their toxicity effects. Here we tried to give some deeper insights of curcumin with a focus on its biological activities and various synthetic derivatives with a view to get potential lead molecules for future drug discovery and expansion of its medicinal profile.