Synthesis and Semi-synthesis of Curcumin as a Medical Precursor and Its Derivatives with Desirable Purity and Qualitative and Quantitative Evaluation

Spices and herbs are considered rich sources of powerful antioxidants. Since 2000 years ago, spices and herbs have been utilized as fragrances, colourants, and medicines. Both natural and synthetic antioxidants inhibit or delay oxidation. Due to multiple adverse effects of synthetic antioxidants on human health, there is currently an ever-increasing demand for the natural antioxidants. One of the useful spices, turmeric, with the folk name of Curcuma longa belongs to the ginger family. Turmeric usually grows in tropical regions in India, China, Malaysia, and the Philippines. Antioxidant and medicinal substances are derived from turmeric’s rhizome. Turmeric has been used to treat many diseases due to its wide range of medicinal applications. Turmeric has been used as herbal medicine. It is traditionally used to treat a variety of diseases such as head cold, cough, sinusitis, anorexia, diabetic ulcers, cramps, and liver obstruction of gastric ulcer. Three different types of curcuminoids exist as bioactive compounds in turmeric including curcumin as the main constituent, and dimethoxy curcumin, and bis-dimethoxy curcumin. These compounds differ in the position of the methoxy group. This study aimed at synthesizing and analyzing the curcuminoid using the HPLC technique and related tests. The results obtained from the analysis of the synthetic curcumin were consistent with those for the standard curcumin. The reaction was carried out at relatively milder conditions than earlier reported methods.