Cancer Chemopreventive Agent Curcumin metabolism in Human and Rat Intestine

ABOUT AUTHOR 
Uday Sasi Kiran Kantheti*¹, K. Sonali Chowdary², S. Arjuna Rao³, D. Yaswanth Kumar^4 
1Department of pharmacology, Royal College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Berhampur, Odisha-760002
²Department of pharmacology, Aston University, Birmingham, UK,
³Department of pharmacy, A.M. Reddy memorial college of Pharmacy, Narasaraopet, A.P, India
⁴Department of pharmaceutics, Sarada college of Pharmaceutical sciences, Narasaraopet, A.P, India

Abstract
Curcumin, the yellow pigment in turmeric, prevents malignancies in the intestinal tract of rodents. It is under clinical evaluation as a potential colon cancer chemopreventive agent. The systemic bioavailability of curcumin is low, perhaps attributable, at least in part, to metabolism. Indirect evidence suggests that curcumin is metabolized in the intestinal tract. Curcumin sulfate was identified in incubations of curcumin with intact rat gut sacs. Curcumin was sulfated by human phenol sulfotransferase isoenzymes SULT1A1 and SULT1A3. Equine alcohol dehydrogenase catalyzed the reduction of curcumin to Hexahydrocurcumin. The results show that curcumin undergoes extensive metabolic conjugation and reduction in the gastrointestinal tract and that there are more metabolisms in human than in rat intestinal tissue. The pharmacological implications of the intestinal metabolism of curcumin should be taken into account in the design of future chemoprevention trials of this dietary constituent.
Keywords: Cancer, Chemopreventive Agent, Curcumin Metabolism.