Curcumin is the main bioactive constituent of turmeric rhizome. A wide range of pharmacological activities of curcumin has been reported. There has been growing interest in the development of preparative purification of curcumin. The objective of this study is the isolation of curcumin from other components by using recycling preparative HPLC method from curcuma longa L. The extraction was achieved by using ultrasonic system with three different solvents, including acetone, dichloromethane, and ethanol. After optimization of extraction process, preparative HPLC system was first applied for separation of curcumin. Because of poor resolution of preparative HPLC, recycled preparative HPLC was applied for separation of curcumin with higher purity up to five cycles. Recycled preparative HPLC resulted in improvement in separation factors which led to the increase of curcumin purity up to 99.5%. This method is simple, highly efficient, environmentally friendly, and has been demonstrated to be effective for preparation and purification of curcumin from curcuma longa L.
