The yellow polyphenolic pigment known as curcumin, originating from the rhizome of the turmeric plant Curcuma longa L., has been utilized for ages in ancient medicine, as well as in cooking and food coloring. Recently, the biological activities of turmeric and curcumin have been thoroughly investigated. The studies mainly focused on their antioxidant, antitumor, anti-inflammatory, neuroprotective, hepatoprotective, and cardioprotective impacts. This review seeks to provide an in-depth, detailed discussion of curcumin usage within the food processing industries and its effect on health support and disease prevention. Curcumin’s bioavailability, bio-efficacy, and bio-safety characteristics, as well as its side effects and quality standards, are also discussed. Finally, curcumin’s multifaceted uses, food appeal enhancement, agro-industrial techniques counteracting its instability and low bioavailability, nanotechnology and focused drug delivery systems to increase its bioavailability, and prospective clinical use tactics are all discussed.

In contrast to their well-known physiological properties, phytochemicals, such as flavonoids, have been less frequently examined for their physiochemical properties (e.g., surface activity). A natural quercetin self-stabilizing Pickering emulsion was fabricated and characterized in the present study. The antisolvent precipitation method was used to modify quercetin (in dihydrate form), and the obtained particles were characterized by light microscope, atom force microscope, XRD, and contact angle. The antisolvent treatment was found to reduce the particle size, crystallinity, and surface hydrophobicity of quercetin. We then examined the effects of the antisolvent ratio, particle concentration, and oil fraction on the properties of the quercetin particle-stabilized emulsions. In addition, increasing the antisolvent ratio (1:1~1:10) effectively improved the emulsification performance of the quercetin particles. The emulsion showed good storage stability, and the particle size of the emulsion decreased with the rising particle concentration and increased with the rising oil phase ratio. The findings indicate that natural quercetin treated with antisolvent method has a good ability to stabilize Pickering emulsion, and this emulsion may have good prospective application potential for the development of novel and functional emulsion foods.

White pollution is an increasingly serious concern. Consequently, the development of green degradable packaging materials has become a research focus. We incorporated different concentrations of clove essential oil (Ceo) (0 %, 0.5 %, 0.75 %, 1.0 %, and 1.25 %, w/w) into modified tapioca starch to formulate bacteriostatic compound films. The test results indicated that the barrier properties of the Ceo-series composite films surpassed those of the tapioca starch (TS) film. Specifically, the oxygen permeability of the 1.25 % Ceo film was 7.31 g/m²·s, the water vapor permeability decreased to 1.35 g/m²·s, and the oil permeability was reduced to 0.15 g mm m⁻² d⁻¹. In addition, the 1.25 % Ceo film exhibited inhibition zones of 4.23 ± 0.28 mm against Staphylococcus aureus and 5.02 ± 0.31 mm against Escherichia coli. In the sustained release test, the Ceo-series composite films demonstrated a uniform and stable release. Furthermore, their degradability reached approximately 70 % by the 20th day. The 1.25 % Ceo film extended the shelf-life of bread to 9 days, exceeding than that of the commercially available polyethylene (PE) plastic wrap. These results highlight that Ceo-series composite films possess outstanding characteristics as active food packaging materials, particularly for noncontact food preservation.