VEGFA and diabetes mellitus: Curcumin has been identified as the active principle of turmeric and has been shown to exhibit antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, and anticarcinogenic activities [27,28].Curcumin was shown to induce apoptosis in human retinal endothelial cells and decrease VEGF release into media in vitro [29] and it also inhibits diabetes-induced elevation of serum VEGF levels in rat [30].