“…Few studies have shown that curcumin is vasoactive; no previous report has investigated curcumin's action on the microcirculation. Studies in macrovessels typically tested micromolar levels of various curcuminoid preparations, and found a decrease in tension development for artery rings from porcine coronary arteries, rat aorta, and rabbit basilar arteries ( Ahn, Park, Woo et al, 2009 ; Sasaki, Gogo, Tohda et al, 2003 ; Xu, Long, Dai and Liu, 2007 ), but not rabbit aorta ( Gilani, Shah, Ghayur et al, 2005 ); decreased tension is interpreted as dilation. From the limited literature, the mechanism by which curcumin decreases tension appears to be at most half NO-mediated (half attributed to β-Ad, Xu, Long, Dai and Liu, 2007 ), yet the vasoactivity appears to widely differ by tissue and species, or perhaps by curcuminoid preparation or extraction procedure.…”