Curcumin is a cheap, non-toxic, and easily available natural
polyphenol with excellent medicinal and commercial demands.
Many costly products can be derived very easily from curcumin.
For example, Curcumin can easily be converted to vanillin
through a single-step conversion (Bandyopadhyay and Banik,
2012). A huge number of preclinical and early-phase clinical
studies undoubtedly confirmed this nutraceutical as safe with
vast potential of becoming an effective anti-invasive and antimetastatic
chemotherapeutic, possibly in combination with other
drugs and/or appropriate structural modification for the treatment
of cancer. The only concern about this compound is its poor
ADME profile. The bioavailability of curcumin is low because
of poor absorption, rapid elimination and/or low target organ
concentration. On the other hand, curcumin exerted multiple
anticancer properties in vitro, ex vivo and in vivo as well as in clinical
trials by regulating a variety of biological pathways involved
in tumor invasion, metastasis and angiogenesis. Based on its huge therapeutic aspects several active investigations are going on to
overcome the ADME-related drawbacks by introducing new and
novel formulation and route of administration to achieve the
highest therapeutic level. It is highly expected that Curcumin, the
golden spice of India, with novel formulation/route of administration
will metastasize from curry to capsule for the treatment of
cancer invasion and metastasis.