Abstract

The current study aimed to provide a comprehensive bibliometric overview of the literature on curcumin, complementing the previous reviews and meta-analyses on its potential health benefits. Bibliometric data for the current analysis were extracted from the Web of Science Core Collection database, using the search string TOPIC=(“curcumin*”), and analyzed by the VOSviewer software. The search yielded 18,036 manuscripts. The ratio of original articles to reviews was 10.4:1. More than half of the papers have been published since 2014. The major contributing countries were the United States, China, India, Japan, and South Korea. These publications were mainly published in journals representing the following scientific disciplines: biochemistry, chemistry, oncology, and pharmacology. There was a significant positive correlation between the total publication count and averaged citations per manuscript for affiliations, but not for countries/regions and journals. Chemicals that were frequently mentioned in the keywords of evaluated curcumin publications included curcuminoids, resveratrol, chitosan, flavonoids, quercetin, and polyphenols. The literature mainly focused on curcumin’s effects against cancer, inflammation, and oxidative stress. Cancer types most frequently investigated were breast, colon, colorectal, pancreatic, and prostate cancers.

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Reference

Yeung AWK, Horbańczuk M, Tzvetkov NT, Mocan A, Carradori S, Maggi F, Marchewka J, Sut S, Dall’Acqua S, Gan RY, Tancheva LP, Polgar T, Berindan-Neagoe I, Pirgozliev V, Šmejkal K, Atanasov AG. Curcumin: Total-Scale Analysis of the Scientific Literature. Molecules. 2019 Apr 9;24(7). pii: E1393. doi: 10.3390/molecules24071393. PubMed PMID: 30970601.

Tropical rainforest, Queensland, Australia. Photo by Dr. Rohan Davis.

Analytical equipment. Photo by Atanas G. Atanasov.

Hep-2 signal activated cells. Image by Dr. Vassilis Doucas.

Flower blossoms at gardens by the bay Singapore-photo by Dr. Hemanth Kumar Boyina.

Saffron plants, Zapponeta (Foggia), South of Italy. Photo by Dr. Grazia D'Onofrio.

Blood cells colored with fluorescence dye. Photo by Dr. Davide Barreca.

Substance library. Photo by Dr. Nikolay Tzvetkov.

Lichens of the Eastern Morocco, Oujda, Morocco. Photo by Dr. Khalid El Bairi ©.

The Botanical Garden of Department of Pharmacognosy, University of Vienna, Austria. Photo by Atanas G. Atanasov.

Lagoon of the seven cities, a twin lake in the crater of a dormant volcano in the western part of the São Miguel island (Azores, Portugal). Photo by Dr. Ana Sanches Silva.

Central Australian desert scene. Photo by Dr. Rohan Davis.

HEK293T cells. Photo by Atanas G. Atanasov.

Tropical rainforest, Queensland, Australia. Photo by Dr. Rohan Davis.

Australian ocean scene. Photo by Dr. Rohan Davis.

Laboratory equipment. Photo by Atanas G. Atanasov.

Rhododendron arboreum flower. Photo by Devesh Tewari.

The Valley of Flowers, Himalaya, India. Photo by Dr. Rajeshwari Singh.

Bryce Canyon, Utah, USA. Photo by Dr. Anupam Bishayee.

Euphorbia prolifera Buch. (Ham) Ex. Photo by Devesh Tewari.

Foothills of Himalaya, India. Photo by Devesh Tewari.

The Valley of Flowers, Himalaya, India. Photo by Dr. Rajeshwari Singh.

Eco-School Festival, Leiria-Portugal, Spring 2018

Polygonum maritimum (L.) (Polygonaceae)- Ourdania beach (Ain Temouchent- west Algeria)- taken by PhD. EL HACI Imad Abdelhamid

Flower blossoms at gardens by the bay Singapore-photo by Dr. Hemanth Kumar Boyina.

Keywords: curcumin, natural products, pharmacology, bibliometrics, biochemistry, cancer, citation analysis, VOSviewer, Web of Science, inflammation, oxidative stress, curcuminoids, resveratrol, chitosan.

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