Research progress on the chemical components and pharmaceutical actionof Radix curcumae

Radix curcumae has a long history of medicinal use with the effects of normalizing gallbladder to cure jaundice, promoting qi circulation to relieve pain, clearing away the heart-fire to dispel melancholy and activating blood circulation to dissipate blood stasis. Besides, it can also protect the liver, accelerate the excretion and secretion of bile and reduce blood lipid with certain inhibitory effect on central nervous system. In clinical trials it is applied to merely treat diseases like cancer, schizophrenia, chronic gastritis, vascular lesions, cholecystitis, hepatitis, fever, faint, epilepsy, jaundice, abdominal distension, abdominal pain, dysmenorrhea as well as amenorrhea. This paper is mainly to do some research on the chemical constituents and pharmacological activities of Radix curcumae.