Table 1.

Serum and tissue levels of curcumin in animal and clinical studies.

Animals	Dose a, Route of Administration	Bioavailability			Reference
		Tissue	Concentration	Time Measured after Administration
Animal Studies
NMRI and C57/BL6 mouse	50 mg/kg, force-fed	Brain	Below detection limit	30, 60, and 120 min
	100 mg/kg, i.p.		0.004–0.005 mg/g	20–40 min	[65]
C57BL6/J male and female mice	0.148 mg, i.p.	Brain	0.000739 ± 0.019 mg/g 2.010 µM	4 h	[55]
		Plasma	0.000127 ± 0.035 mg/mL 0.345 µM
	0.148 mg, oral	Brain	0.000519 ± 0.098a mg/g 1.412 µM	4 h
		Plasma	Below detection level
	0.074 mg, intramuscular	Brain	0.001162 ± 0.004 mg/g 3.157 µM	4 h
		Plasma	0.000238 ± 0.048 mg/mL 0.647 µM
	~2.5 mg/day, oral (500 ppm)	Brain	0.000469 ± 0.220 mg/g 1.276 µM	4 months
		Plasma	0.000035 ± 0.014 mg/mL 0.095 µM
	~10 mg/day, oral (2000 ppm)	Brain	0.000525 ± 0.125 mg/g 1.428 µM	4 months
		Plasma	0.000171 ± 0.019 mg/mL 0.465 µM
Male Sprague-Dawley rats	500 mg/kg, oral	Plasma	0.00006 ± 0.01 mg/mL	41.7 ± 5.4 min	[56]
	10 mg/kg, intravenous	Plasma	0.00036 ± 0.05 mg/mL	Not mentioned
Male Sprague-Dawley rats	1000 mg/kg, oral	Plasma	15 ng/mL	50 min	[66]
Female BALB/c mice	0.1 g/kg, i.p.	Brain	0.00041 ± 0.01 mg/g	1 h	[50]
		Intestine	0.11704 ± 6.86 mg/g
		Kidneys	0.00751 ± 0.08 mg/g
		Liver	0.0269 ± 2.58 mg/g
		Plasma	0.0006 ± 0.03 mg/g
		Spleen	0.02606 ± 1.06 mg/g
Clinical Studies
Human	500–8000 mg/day, oral	Serum	0.51 ± 0.11 µM 0.63 ± 0.06 µM 1.77 ± 1.87 µM	1–2 h	[67]
	4000 mg 6000 mg 8000 mg	Urine	Undetectable
Human	500–12,000 mg, oral 500–8000 mg	Serum	Undetectable	1, 2, 4 h	[63]
	10,000 mg		30.4 ng/mL 39.5 ng/mL 50.5 ng/mL	1 h 2 h 4 h
	12,000 mg		29.7 ng/mL 57.6 ng/mL 51.2 ng/mL	1 h 2 h 4 h
Human	0.45–3.6 g, oral	Plasma	11.1 ± 0.6 nmol/L	1 h	[68]
	Under 3.6 g	Urine	0.1–1.3 nmol/L
Human	2 or 4 g, oral	Plasma	7 ng/mL	24 weeks	[69]
Human	100 mg, oral	Plasma	3.2 nM	2 h	[70]
Human	8 g, oral	Plasma	29 to 91 ng/mL	3 months	[71]

^a = Varies based on the studies mentioned in the table; i.p. = intraperitoneal.