Compa rison of Efficacy of Tu rmeri c and Commercial Cu rcumin in Immunelopleal Functions and Gene Regulat ion

Crcumin. the active constituent of turmeric possessec anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory and other properties. Earlier we have shown ethanolic extract of turmeric rhizome (ETE) activates murine lymphocytes and induces apoptosis in tumor cells. The present investigation is intended to study comparative efficacy of ETE as used by us and others and commercially available curcumin, The efficacy of these two substances was tested for immunostimulatory. anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant properties in murine model. The expression of a few genes such as perfori n. IL-2. IL-6. TN F-(alpha) and iNOS related with these events have also been studied at Transcriptional level in T-cells. The ETE promoted cell division and functions of murine lymphocytes like production of NO- , up regulation of perforin. IL-2 and IL-6 genes in course of functional differentiation much beter than curcumin. The ETE act, better as anti-inflammatory agent in DTH reaction than eurcumin. The better efficacy of ETE over curcumin could be due to presence of other compunds in the total extract than only diferuloylmethane as curcumin. The present study intends to recommend use of turmeric over curcumi n whenever possible.