Preparation and Characterization of Highly Water Soluble Curcumin – Dextrose Cocrystal

Katherine Kho (Indonesia International Institute for Life Sciences)
Denny Nugroho (Parahyangan Catholic University)
Asaf Kleopas Sugih (Parahyangan Catholic University)

The Journal of Pure and Applied Chemistry Research
Vol 7, No 2 (2018): Edition May-August 2018

Curcumin is a natural food colorant isolated from rhizomes of turmeric (Curcuma longa). Despite its many favorable properties, curcumin is practically insoluble in water and relatively unstable, thus limiting its application. In this research, a potential method to improve curcumin solubility and stability, i.e. cocrystallisation of curcumin with dextrose was investigated.. The effect of curcumin content in the cocrystals on solubility and yield of the product was studied. The morphology of the cocrystals was observed using SEM. In addition, stability in different pH range was investigated.  Crystal structure and curcumin – dextrose interaction were analyzed using FT-IR spectra and DSC thermograms. The result shows that curcumin – dextrose cocrystal is a potential food colorant that could be applied to water – based food at various pH range.