Background

Curcumin is a yellow-orange, hydrophobic compound extracted from Curcuma longa and widely used by oriental cultures. It displays numerous biological activities and shows antimicrobial activity against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, as well as yeasts and molds. However, its low water solubility decreases its bioavailability and hinders its industrial use. Curcumin may be modified by micro/nanoencapsulation or nanonization (transformation in nanometric crystals) techniques, to improve its water solubility and dispersibility and potentiate its biological properties. Furthermore, encapsulated curcumin may be applied to foods as a preservative, to increase the product's shelf life.

Scope and approach

In this work, the recent developments in the antimicrobial activity of micro- and nanoformulations (nano/microparticles, capsules and nanocrystals) of curcumin are comprehensively reviewed. Also, the most common methods applied for antimicrobial determination are listed and discussed, highlighting the conflicting results of inhibitory concentration that may be found by each technique.

Key findings and conclusions

When evaluating the antimicrobial properties of curcumin, it becomes important to determine the actual gains from encapsulation because these techniques are usually expensive and may lead to the degradation of curcumin during the encapsulation steps. Attention must be paid when choosing the most suitable experimental method to determine the antimicrobial activity of encapsulated curcumin because minimum inhibitory concentration values may vary significantly.

中文翻译：

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姜黄素纳米制剂对其抗菌活性的影响

背景

姜黄素是从姜黄中提取的黄橙色疏水性化合物，被东方文化广泛使用。它显示出多种生物学活性，并显示出对革兰氏阳性和革兰氏阴性细菌以及酵母和霉菌的抗菌活性。但是，其低水溶性降低了其生物利用度并阻碍了其工业应用。姜黄素可以通过微/纳米囊化或纳米化（纳米晶体中的转化）技术进行修饰，以改善其水溶性和分散性并增强其生物学特性。此外，封装的姜黄素可作为防腐剂应用于食品，以延长产品的保质期。

范围和方法

在这项工作中，对姜黄素的微和纳米制剂（纳米/微粒，胶囊和纳米晶体）的抗菌活性的最新进展进行了全面的综述。此外，列出并讨论了用于抗菌测定的最常用方法，突出了每种技术可能发现的抑制浓度的矛盾结果。

主要发现和结论

当评估姜黄素的抗微生物特性时，确定包囊的实际收益就变得很重要，因为这些技术通常很昂贵，并且可能在包囊步骤中导致姜黄素降解。选择最合适的实验方法以确定胶囊化姜黄素的抗微生物活性时必须引起注意，因为最小抑菌浓度值可能会发生显着变化。