Curcumin: multifaceted biological actions and therapeutic implications—a narrative review

Curcumin, a bioactive polyphenol extracted from the rhizome of Curcuma longa, has garnered considerable attention for its wide-ranging pharmacological properties and potential therapeutic applications. This narrative review critically synthesizes current evidence on curcumin’s multifaceted biological actions, encompassing its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, and metabolic regulatory effects. Extensive preclinical and clinical studies have demonstrated that curcumin exerts beneficial effects by modulating key cellular signaling pathways and mitigating oxidative stress and inflammatory responses. Despite its promising profile, clinical translation has been hampered by issues related to low bioavailability and rapid metabolism. Recent advances in novel formulation strategies and combination therapies, however, have shown potential in overcoming these limitations. This review uniquely consolidates recent mechanistic insights with clinical translation challenges, identifying specific gaps in bioavailability research and proposing novel combination therapy approaches that distinguish it from existing curcumin reviews, ultimately facilitating evidence-based therapeutic development.