Curcumin Nanoparticles for Biomedical Research

Curcumin was obtained from Acros Organics (Morris Plains, NJ, USA) as a mixture of Curcumin (>98%) with demethoxyCurcumin and bisdemethoxyCurcumin (both <1%). Curcumin aqueous suspensions were prepared as 5 and 100 mg/mL. PLGA ((50:50) Resomer R503H; MW 35-40kDa) was used to prepare Curcumin nanoparticles (CNP) by single emulsion method resulting in particles with a hydrodynamic diameter of 315–320 nm [17 (link),19 (link)]. Blank nanoparticles (BNP) without Curcumin were used as the vehicle control and had a hydrodynamic diameter of 310 nm. Both CNP and BNP had surface charge measured as zeta potential of –29 mV at pH 5.5.