After complete removal of the solvent at 55 °C under a mild stream of argon, the films were dried in vacuo (≤ 0.2 mbar) for at least 20 min. Subsequently, preheated (37 °C), ultrapure H 2 O was added to obtain the final polymer and CUR concentrations as mentioned in the main text. To ensure complete solubilization, the solutions were shaken at 55 °C for 15 min at 1250 rpm with a Thermomixer comfort (Eppendorf AG, Hamburg, Germany). Non-solubilized curcumin, if any, was removed by centrifugation for 5 min at 9.000 rpm with a MIKRO 185 (Hettich, Tuttlingen, Germany). CUR quantification was performed by UV-Vis absorption of samples diluted in ethanol using a BioTek Eon Microplate Spectrophotometer (Thermo Fisher Scientific, MA, USA) and a calibration curve obtained with known amounts of CUR. For SANS measurements, the freshly prepared aqueous formulations were freeze-dried and redissolved in deuterated water (D 2 O) right before measurements. Note that the densimetric measurements were performed in H 2 O.