Free radical reactions of curumin, a lipid soluble antioxidant from turmeric (Curcuma longa), have been studied with a variety of oxidants using TX 100 micelle as a model membrane. The phenoxyl radicals of curcumin generated by one electron oxidizing azide radicals in acetonitrile-water mixture and TX 100 micelles show very similar spectral behavior. However, in membrane models the radical lifetimes and the molar extinction coefficients are significantly different from the homogeneous solutions. Micellized curcumin reacts with haloperoxyl radicals, superoxide, and lipid peroxyl radicals with rate constants of 5 X 10(3), 4.6 X 10(4), and 5.3 X 10(5) M-1s-1, respectively. Curcumin derived phenoxyl radicals decay by radical-radical reactions in homogeneous solutions, while in the micelles, radical decay is mostly first order when the average occupancy of the micelle is less than 1. Implications of these results in evaluating curcumin as an antioxidant is discussed.