Turmeric Extract and Curcumin Enhance the Yield of T2 Bacteriophage in E. Coli

It has been demonstrated that turmeric and curcumin—a chemical present in turmeric—have antibacterial and antiviral activity for viruses of humans. Increasing concentrations of turmeric extract and purified curcumin have no effect on the replication of Escherichia coli cultured in Luria-Bertani broth. Increasing concentrations of curcumin enhance the replication of T2 bacteriophage in E. coli cells. E. coli cells treated with purified curcumin at a concentration of 40 µg/ml enhance T2 bacteriophage yield to 313% of the control culture. The earlier curcumin was added to the E. coli cells before infection, the greater was the enhancement of the T2 bacteriophage yield suggesting that curcumin stimulates the metabolism of bacteriophage replication and not assembly of bacteriophage particles. Increasing amounts of glucose added to E. coli cultures infected with T2 bacteriophage caused an increase in the yield of the bacteriophage but increasing amounts of glucose added to E. coli cultures treated with curcumin and then infected with T2 bacteriophage caused a decrease in the bacteriophage yield. These results suggest that curcumin stimulation of T2 bacteriophage yield is the result of the stimulation of adenylate cyclase enzyme activity and cAMP production by E. coli cells