Curcumin (CURC) is a natural compound, which is extracted from turmeric (curcuma longa) and is widely used as spice or food additive. The latter is also due to its intense orange colour, which makes curcumin particularly attractive for the food processing industry. More recently the interest in CURC also concerns its remarkable properties as antinflammatory and antibacterial drugs. Furthermore, it has been recently confirmed that curcumin exerts an important anticancer activity, which has further revived the pharmacological interest towards this natural compound. In addition, curcumin absorbing in the visible light, the possible exploitation of its excited state manifold for photodynamic (PDT) or light assisted chemo-therapy (LAC) have also been investigated. In particular, exploiting CURC, a natural occurring non-toxic spice, for PDT aimed at food processing and its antibacterial treatment is particularly attractive. Other analogue components of turmeric such as cyclocurcumin, have also been highlighted for their possible photophysical and photochemical properties. However, to ensure the efficiency of PDT, which is based on the activation of molecular oxygen to its reactive singlet state 1 O2, crucial photophysical conditions should be reunited. In particular, a high intersystem crossing (ISC), leading to a fast and efficient population of the photosensitizer triplet state manifold is required. Furthermore, the accessible triplet state should be energetic enough to allow sensitization of the molecular oxygen. Obviously, intense absorption in the visible, or even near infrared portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, together with a high bioavailability are also necessary to increase the global efficiency. Unfortunately, the last two properties are usually conflicting, since red-shifting the absorption spectrum usually requires the inclusion of large pconjugated moieties, which in turn diminish solubility in aqueous media and biological conditions. As a matter of fact, the use of specific drug-delivering techniques for PDT agents, also based on their encapsulation in supramolecular aggregates or liposomes, has been proven successful to increase bioavailability and in vivo efficiency. A related advantage of tailored-drug delivery protocols relies on the possibility to functionalize the vector to enhance selectivity for cancer cell over healthy ones, hence adding up to the spatial selectivity brought by the use of light and hence minimize side-effects. Moreover, to maximize the efficiency of PDT or LAC, and in general light-activated phenomena, the influence of nonradiative decay channels, such as thermal deactivation or photochemical isomerization, should be minimized to avoid quenching of the active excited state. Hence, molecular modelling and simulation occupies a place of choice in the development of efficient PDT and LAC agents. Indeed, it allows to disentangle the complex interplay between opposite phenomena as well as the crucial influence of the inhomogeneous surrounding on the photophysical properties. In this sense molecular modelling and simulation are also invaluable to foster a more successful rational molecular design.