# Curcumin Innovative Delivery Forms: Paving the Yellow Brick Road' of Antitumoral Phytotherapy
## 4 Innovative Curcumin Formulations and High-Performance Delivery Forms
### Oral Delivery Forms  
#### 4.1.1 Marketed Products  
There are, at the present day, many curcumin supplements available in the market which promise improved bioavailability when compared with pure curcumin. Albeit these were not specifically developed for (nor tested on) cancer patients, they can still be quite useful for them owing to their claimed superior bioavailability. Optimized for oral delivery, these formulations can offer good systemic action with doses as low as 30 mg/day. Ingestion of such improved formulations is, thus, much more practical than taking pure curcumin, which would theoretically require a patient to have 5-10 g/day, corresponding to 10-20 tablets. The different formulation strategies for curcumin (or curcuminoid mixtures) available from commercial suppliers are systematized in the Table 4 (next page). Many of these products were tested on human subjects, which comprised healthy volunteers in some instances and patients suffering from inflammatory conditions in a few other studies. Thereacurmin is a stable colloidal suspension of curcuminoids formulated as polysaccharide nanoparticles (NPs). It was tested in a dose of 30 mg on seven healthy volunteers, other seven having \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c} \hline \hline
**Species** & **Dose** & **Route** & \(\mathbf{C_{\max}}\) **Mean**\(\pm\) **S.D. (nM)** & **Ref.** \\ \hline Rat & 10 mg/kg & I.V. & 977 \(\pm\) 27 & [162] \\ Mouse & 100 mg/kg & I.P. & 6107 \(\pm\) (n.a.) & [163] \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular} Note: I.P. = intraperitoneal, I.V. = intravenous, n.a. = not available (S.D. was not calculated).  
\end{table} 
Table 3: Plasma peak levels (\(C_{\max}\)) in rodents after parenteral administration of curcumin. 30 mg curcumin powder. The nanoparticles were shown to increase the AUC (area under the curve, a measure of the total bioavailability of curcumin over time) by 27-fold (compared to curcuminoid powder), thus pointing to increased bioavailability [151]. In \"Biocurcumax\", curcumin is dispersed in turmeric oil containing 45% of _ar_-turmerone. This formulation, studied in a group of eight volunteers, showed an absorption maximum after 3 h of ingestion and curcumin levels 5-16-fold higher to those of unformulated curcumin [169]. Blending curcumin with turmeric essential oil is also the strategy used in \"Biomor\", which is claimed to have bioavailability five times higher than the competitors' brands of bioavailable curcumin (namely those using piperine as an absorption enhancer). The reported plasma peak after the intake of 4 g of \"Biomor\" is observed at 4 h and has a value of ca. 1.6 \(\upmu\)g/mL [14]. In \"Meriva\", curcumin forms a solid dispersion with \"phytosomes\" and this blend is dosed in the form of gelatin capsules. Phytosome is the tradename given to liposomes rich in phosphatidylcholine [170, 171]. When inside the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, these liposomes facilitate the interaction with biological membranes and increase absorption [171]. Meriva increases the average plasma peak levels of curcumin by roughly five times in male Wistar rats [172]. In humans, it allows lowering daily intake values while keeping a safe and effective action. Two clinical studies with 50 [173] and 100 [174] osteoarthritis patients showed improved mobility upon intake of 200 mg of Meriva curcumin. Liposomal curcumin is also found in several other oral liquid formulations from various manufacturers [175, 176, 177, 178]. Molecular encapsulation of curcumin with \(\upgamma\)-cyclodextrintrin affords the inclusion complex denominated as \"Cavacurmin\", which features increased solubility and bioavailability over pure curcumin. Taken as a dietary supplement (as capsules), Cavacurmin is claimed to be transported unchanged through the stomach into the upper intestinal tract, where it dissociates, and curcumin is absorbed [179]. A study on 12 healthy volunteers taking cavacurmin showed a \(C_{max}\) of ca. 190 nM, which is roughly 40-fold higher than pure curcumin.