The plant pigment curcumin, found in the popular Indian curry spice turmeric, is well known as an antioxidant for foods. However, researches have paid attention to another characteristic. Curcumin is highly active against the growth of certain cancers. Therefore researches have high expectations that curcumin can be administered as phytotherapeutic drug in order to prevent metastasis which occurs frequently during orafter cytostatic chemotherapy.

As a result, much more attention is currently being paid to curcumin and the need for a fast and reproducible HPLC method is increasing. YMC has developed a method which enables analysis of curcumin and related polyphenolic compounds in less than 3 minutes. It is based on YMC-UltraHT ProC18, a 2µm packing material specifically designed for FastLC.

For further information please contact Dr. Friederike Becker, YMC Europe GmbH, Telephone: +49 (0)2064 427-261, Fax: +49 (0)2064 427-222 or visit www.ymc.de