Spicing up MOFs

Victoria Richards writes about a hot ChemComm article for Chemistry World

Curcumin is top of the ingredients list for a highly porous metal–organic framework (MOF) being developed by scientists in China that demonstrates a unique co-release drug delivery system.

MOFs have shown huge potential as drug carriers thanks to their large voids capable of encapsulating a wide variety of guest molecules. However, they are typically built from expensive, petrochemical-derived organic linkers, which, unfortunately, are not biocompatible. To overcome this, a team led by Guangshan Zhu, of Jilin University, has constructed a MOF exclusively from biologically friendly zinc ions and bioactive curcumin – the yellow pigment in the popular Indian spice turmeric, known for its potent anti-cancer properties.


Read the full article in Chemistry World»

Read the original journal article in ChemComm – it’s free to access until 13th April:
A highly porous medical metal–organic framework constructed from bioactive curcumin
Hongmin Su, Fuxing Sun, Jiangtao Jia, Hongming He, Aifei Wang and Guangshan Zhu  
Chem. Commun., 2015, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C4CC10159F, Communication

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