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ABSTRACT

Curcumin is a polyphenolic diketone derived from turmeric and has been exploited for many applications. Earlier studies have demonstrated that curcumin can be used as a less toxic alternative to Coomassie Brilliant Blue to stain protein and to quantify protein by fluorometric assays, but the potential of curcumin to quantify proteins by absorbance assays has not been adequately explored. In this study, we examined curcumin under several conditions to determine whether it may be used to quantify proteins by either fluorometric or absorbance microassays. Fluorometric assays worked best in an acidic DMSO solution while absorbance assays worked best in an EtOH solution buffered by Tris.