Turmeric (Curcuma longa L.) has been used as a spice and a medicinal herb since ancient times. The main active ingredient of turmeric is curcumin, a polyphenol that helps prevent and control neurological, respiratory, cardiovascular, metabolic, inflammatory, and autoimmune diseases and some cancers. However, curcumin has drawbacks such as low water-solubility, poor absorption, fast metabolism, quick systemic elimination, low bioavailability, poor pharmacokinetics, low stability, and low penetration targeting efficacy. To overcome these drawbacks, a common method used is encapsulating curcumin in nanocarriers for targeted delivery. However, the degraded products of nanocarriers have raised concerns. In this research, we synthesized nanoparticles of curcumin, nanocurcumin without using nanocarriers. To do so, curcumin was soxhlet extracted from raw turmeric rhizome. The stock solutions of different curcumin concentrations prepared in dichloromethane were added to boiling water at different flow rates and sonicated for different time intervals. An average particle size of 82 ± 04 nm was obtained with 5.00 mg/mL stock solution concentration, at 0.10 mL/min flow rate and 30 min sonication time. The particle size tends to increase with the flow rate and the concentration of curcumin in the stock solution but decreases with the sonication time. X-ray diffraction shows sharp and intense diffraction peaks for curcumin, indicating its identity and high crystallinity, but nanocurcumins are amorphous. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy spectra confirm the presence of all the functional groups of curcumin in nanocurcumin. Transmission electron microscopy and scanning electron microscopy images show the perfectly spherical morphology of nanocurcumin. Although curcumin is not water-soluble, nanocurcumin formulations are freely dispersible in water.

The development of antibacterial compounds using natural products, particularly nano-sized antibacterial products, has been intensively investigated in recent years. This study was conducted to compare the antibacterial activity of nanocurcumin with bulk curcumin against Gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus and Gram-negative Escherichia coli bacteria. Curcumin was extracted from turmeric rhizome using the Soxhlet extraction with ethanol. A physicochemical fabrication method was used to synthesize nanocurcumin from extracted curcumin. The particle size of nanocurcumin was 87 ± 8 nm. The 1H NMR spectrum of nanocurcumin show that all the peaks are well separated and can be interpreted to those of curcumin. According to the in vitro antibacterial assay, nanocurcumin shows better antibacterial activity against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria than bulk curcumin, with increased inhibition zones of 29.91 ± 0.53 mm (S. aureus) and 24.58 ± 1.12 mm (E. coli) when compared to 24.82 ± 0.54 mm (S. aureus) and 19.70 ± 1.18 mm (E. coli) of the latter. Subsequently, antibacterial creams were formulated, and the inhibition zones of nanocurcumin cream were larger than that of curcumin cream for both S. aureus and E. coli, exhibiting its superior antibacterial activity. Different storage periods of up to 1 month did not affect the inhibition zones significantly (p < 0.05), where nanocurcumin cream maintained its better antibacterial quality over bulk curcumin cream. There is no significant cytotoxicity in either of these formulations.

Natural polymers have captivated the food, cosmetic and medical industries lately, due to their much desired properties such as non-toxicity, non-carcinogenicity, biodegradability, and biocompatibility. Xyloglucan is one of the natural polymers, with a wide array of applications. Tamarind seed which is mostly a wasted product in the tamarind pulp industry is highly rich in xyloglucan. The tamarind kernel powder obtained from tamarind seeds can be used to extract the natural tamarind xyloglucan polymer. In this study, eight treatments were used: with two solvents based on; methanol and ethanol, and four different pH values; 5, 6, 7, and 8; to determine the most efficient protocol for tamarind xyloglucan extraction. Three replicates were used for each treatment and the yield and extractability were recorded. All the parameters were tested with one-way ANOVA, and the means were compared with Duncan’s Multiple Range Test. Methanol was found to be a better solvent than ethanol and resulted in a higher xyloglucan yield. The highest extractability was obtained at pH 7 (52.90±2.41%) and 8 (49.07±1.17%) which had no significant difference (p<0.05) between each other. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy spectrum was obtained to confirm the presence of the specific functional groups in the extracted xyloglucan. X-ray diffraction pattern indicated the diffraction peak at 2θ value of 20.05o confirming the extraction of high-quality xyloglucan which was in amorphous nature.