*3.1. Materials*

Glycerol and sebacic acid were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich Chemicals (Milan, Italy). Acetone was purchased from Carlo Erba (Milan, Italy). Curcumin extract (standardized as 95% in curcuminoids composed of: curcumin 85%, demethoxycurcumin 14% and bisdemethoxycurcumin 1%, (chromatograms relevant to curcuminoids UPLC analyses are reported in the supplementary information) was kindly donated by Indena S.p.A. DMEM

cell culture medium supplemented with 10% (*v*/*v*) fetal bovine serum was purchased from Sigma-Aldrich, (St. Louis, MO, USA), penicillin and streptomycin from Gibco/BRL (Carlsbad, CA, USA) and L-glutamine from Life Technologies (Carlsbad, CA, USA). HPLC grade acetonitrile, water, and formic acid were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich (Milan, Italy).
