Curcumin Nanoparticles as Promising Anticancer Agent Against Human Colorectal Cancer Cell Lines

Curcumin, the main bioactive material found in turmeric, has been extensively studied as a curative measure for variety of diseases. Besides its high therapeutic value, curcumin possess some inherent limitations like poor aqueous solubility, less bioavailability, rapid metabolic rate, and fast elimination from the body. In the present study, nanoformulation of curcumin was discussed to improve its potentials and to reduce the disadvantages. The curcumin nanoparticles have been synthesized by wet-milling technique and have been characterized using FTIR, UV-Visible spectroscopy, SEM-EDS, TEM, and XRD. The results showed that the particles have a uniform dispersion and possess spherical shape with size ranging from 10-30 nm. FTIR studies showed that there was no change in the chemical structure of curcumin during the nanoparticle synthesis process. The anticancer activity of the synthesized nanoparticles was studied against DLD-1 (colorectal cancer) cell lines and cytotoxic evaluation was done against L929 (fibroblast) cells. It was observed that the curcumin nanoparticles significantly reduce the cell viability of DLD-1 cells in a concentration dependent manner and less toxic on normal L929 cells.