Résumé:
Tropical spices are exploited by humans since ancient times. Their virtues are expressed
through to their culinary interests, dyes and odorants, but also in traditional medicine. Curcuma
longa
L. is a plant who’s crushed and extracted ground rhizomes provide the eponymous spice known as.
Science magnifies traditional medicine in the service of research and many properties of this spice
are attributed to a molecule found in turmeric: curcumin.
In traditional Indian medicine, turmeric is used as a remedy for coughs, biliary disorders,
anorexia, wounds of diabetics, liver disorders, rheumatism and sinusitis. More recently, studies,
carried out in vitro and in vivo, have shown that curcumin possesses interesting biological activities
for human health including an antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer and antibacterial
effect.
The purpose of this work is to establish the physicochemical properties of Curcuma longa to
explain its biological properties, more precisely its antibacterial activity.
Over the last ten years, the number of studies on turmeric and especially on its major
constituent, curcumin, has continued to increase in order to understand its mechanisms of action and in
the hope of treating many diseases.
