Curcumin as a therapeutic agent in the chemoprevention of inflammatory bowel disease

•Inflammatory bowel diseases are the chronic recurrent inflammation of the intestine.•An imbalance of pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines worsens inflammation in the gut.•Oxidative stress and ER stress mediated apoptosis may lead to intestinal damage.•Curcumin can reduce the cytokine infiltration during inflammation.•Antioxidant properties of curcumin also alleviates the disease progression. Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), mainly Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) are chronic ailments of the gastrointestinal tract, characterized by recurrent inflammation. Current therapeutic strategies are based on the mitigation of symptoms, including inflammatory remission and healing of mucosal manifestations. Extensive studies have suggested that continuous oxidative damage can lead to the inflammatory signaling cascade in IBD. Curcumin, a potent modulator of cell signaling, is popular for its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities, and has already been shown remarkable therapeutic results in IBD. Here, we review and discuss the effects of curcumin as a therapeutic agent in the chemoprevention of IBD.