Nanostructures for Curcumin Delivery: Possibilities and Challenges

Curcumin, also known as Indian solid gold, is an age-old antimicrobial drug used in day-to-day activities by people of South-East Asian countries. It is very unfortunate that curcumin, which was used as general antiseptic and specialized treatments against common infections, is not widely available in the pharmaceutical stores. The principal reason behind this misery is the poor bioavailability of curcumin. In this chapter, we review the potential antimicrobial activity of curcumin, its oral bioavailability challenges and the efforts undertaken by researchers so far to overcome this problem. Finally, we would like to bring it to general consideration, strategies required in the future to make curcumin a marketable drug using advancements in nanotechnology.