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The naturally occurring yellow pigment curcumin is currently under focus in scientific community because it possesses a large number of medicinal effects including anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, anticancer, and anti-amyloid properties. In particular, it has been demonstrated that curcumin has potential for the treatment of skin cancer, thus being an effective photosensitizer. In order to understand the light induced medicinal effects, fundamental understanding of the photophysical events of curcumin is of extreme importance. |
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The keto-enol form of curcumin (above) has been shown to be the predominant tautomer in a series of solvents with various polarities and proticities. The presence of intramolecular hydrogen bonding in the keto-enol tautomer suggests the likelihood of ESIHT. Recently in collaboration with Dr. Tak W. Kee, University of Adelaide we have been working on demonstrating the excited state intramolecular hydrogen atom transfer. To our knowledge, this is the first experimental evidence of the presence of ESIHT in curcumin. Currently we are also focusing on studies of excited state intramolecular hydrogen atom transfer and solvation dynamics of Curcumin in surfactant media |
