I've read it doesn't like to be in basic solutions very long.

For silica gel, it elutes in dichloromethane/ethanol (methanol would work well too, it just elutes a little earlier).

For C18, it elutes in water/methanol, both with 0.1% formic acid.

http://www.isco.com/WebProductFiles/Applications/101/Poster_and_Paper_Reprints/Purification%20of%20Natural%20Products%20Using%20Mass%20Directed%20Fractionation.pdf

Based from experience:

Keep your system (TLC, column, fractions, storage, etc.) away from light.

We used methanol/dichloromethane (gradient elution) for column chromatography separations (optimize this according to your needs)

For HPLC: We used acetonitrile / 2% acetic acid (40:60 v/v) as mobile phase in isocratic elution mode and C-18 as stationary phase. Flow rate is 1.0mL/min. Column temp is ambient. Detection at 425 nm. 10uL injection volume. Of course you will also need to optimize this according to your needs.

Important: STANDARDS! Use reliable and HPLC or analytical grade standards for comparison.

Regards!

We are currently modeling the antioxidant activity of a number of curcurmin derivatives in our group

We have performed the spectrofluorimetric determination of curcumin. See the link below:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/215737879_Development_of_Spectrofluorimetric_Method_for_the_determination_of_curcumin?ev=prf_pub

Article Development of Spectrofluorimetric Method for the determinat...

Find Nilmoni Sarkar's Publications (IIT KGP) on curcumin. He has done a lot on its photophysical properties.

I agree with Jagdish Mahale on his procedure and infact you can increase the level of ethanol to reach the optimum separation.