The effect of curcumin on epilepsy: an experimental review

Abstract

Nearly 70 million people worldwide suffer from epilepsy. Despite administration of routine antiepileptic drugs (AEDs), nearly 30% of seizures are resistant to treatment called drug resistant epilepsy (DRE). Since the epilepsy treatment may result in consequences of multi-drugs administration or sometimes invasive surgical methods in DRE, herbal treatment can be a good alternative choice due to its easy accessibility, lower cost and fewer side effects. Although turmeric has been one of a very commonly used dietary spices and traditional herbal remedies, its derivation as a newly introduced medicine-curcumin has not been used to a large extent. In this literature, we have reviewed the available trial researches, which studied specifically antiepileptic effect of curcumin. We searched databases of Science direct, PubMed and Google Scholar (2008 to 2016) with key words of turmeric, curcumin, Diferuloylmethane, Epilepsy, and Seizure to find the related references. The major extract of turmeric curcumin has found to have antiepileptic effect according to recent surveys. It not only has no critical adverse effect, but also can protect patients from other AEDs severe side effects. It also makes it possible to gradually decrease the dose of AEDs in long-term combination therapy.