Iodinated curcumin bearing dermal cream augmented drug delivery, antimicrobial and antioxidant activities.

Objectives: Curcumin (Cur) exhibits weak microbicidal activity owing to high lipophilicity and low cell permeability. Therefore, in the present investigation, Cur was iodinated using elemental iodine (I) to synthesise Cur-I powder that was later formulated as Cur-I dermal cream and characterised in vitro for antimicrobial and antioxidant activities.

Methods And Results: Electrophilic addition of I saturated the olefinic bonds of Cur, as confirmed by UV/visible spectroscopy, FT-IR, H NMR and DSC techniques. In addition, in vitro skin permeation and retention analysis indicated that Cur-I cream followed the first order and Higuchi model for drug release through the rat skin. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of Cur-I powder was measured to be 60 and 90 µg/ml significantly (p < 0.05) lower than 150 and 120 µg/ml of Cur against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli, respectively. Moreover, Cur-I also exhibited strong antioxidant potential.

Conclusions: Cur-I cream warrants further in vivo study to scale up the technology for clinical translation.