Background In recent decade, abundant improvements have been made in order to develop novel drug delivery system especially for phytoconstituents. Curcumin is a phytoconstituent with wide range of antimicrobial and anticancer activities. However its bioavailability in plasma is very low because of its limited intestinal uptake and fast metabolism. The aim of this review is to identify different types of delivery systems to improve curcumin oral bioavailability. Methods This article reviews different types of nanotechnology-based delivery systems such as liposomes, inclusions, micelle and emulsions to increase the bioavailability and pharmacological efficacy of curcumin. Such delivery systems can be made using thin film method, extrusion method, homogenizer and super-critical method, freeze-drying method and ultrasonic method. Results Different types of curcumin delivery systems in this review have been discussed. Cyclodextrins have increased solubility of curcumin 3200 times. Also they improved its stability in neutral solution up to 45 times better than unformulated curcumin. Cyclodextrins have been evaluated clinically on healthy volunteers revealed 39 times higher bioavailability in comparison with unformulated curcumin. Conclusion The review demonstrated that cyclodextrins among other types of delivery systems are promising nano-formulation loading curcumin in order to enhance its bioavailability and pharmacological efficacy.