Curcuminoid–metal complexes for oxidative stress

Abstract Oxidative stress on the body is an underlying commonality for many disease conditions and inflammation, and as aging occurs. Nutraceuticals containing curcuminoids and tetrahydrocurcumin have been used both in their capacity as antioxidants and for their antiinflammatory activity. However, curcuminoids such as curcumin have certain bioavailability issues that can limit their effectiveness due in part to stability and solubility issues. A new way of helping to increase the efficacy of curcuminoids and their metabolites has been to complex curcumin to metals that in turn help increase stability and solubility. These curcumin–metal complexes have been shown to be more effective than only free curcumin for antioxidant capacity and have been utilized in Alzheimer disease, cancer, and antidepression treatments, as a promising approach to treat inflammatory bowel disease, and many more uses that are still being elucidated. Another use of the curcuminoid–metal complexes may be as antiviral agents to help mitigate oxidative stress caused by microbial infections. A novel curcumin–zinc–tetrahydrocurcumin complex may prove to be a further step in mitigating oxidative stress caused by microbial infections such as viral diseases or for the less dramatic situations that may arise from aging or other factors.