The 3-aminopropyltriethoxy silane (APTES) coated magnetite nanopowders were prepared as carriers for anticancer drug "Curcumin" through the modified controlled chemical co-precipitation method using Oleic acid as the apt surfactant to attain ultrafine, nearly spherical and well-dispersed Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticles. The APTES coated and uncoated Fe3O4 nanoparticles were characterized by XRD, FE-SEM, FT-IR, Raman and VSM techniques. The size of the Fe3O4 nanoparticles and their distribution were determined by particle size analyzer. TEM results show that the average particle size is 15 nm and the particles are homogeneously dispersed which is corroborating well with the FE-SEM images. The room temperature VSM measurements showed that magnetic particles were superparamagnetic characteristics. The amount of APTES bound to the iron oxide nanoparticles were estimated by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and the bonding of APTES to the iron oxide nanoparticles was confirmed by FT-IR and Raman analysis. Drug loading and release profile was studied through UV-Vis Spectrophotometer. The curcumin drug binding on to the amino moiety of APTES-Fe3O4 nanoparticle was also confirmed through CLSM and FT-IR spectroscopic techniques. Rapid curcumin drug loading in 2 h and the controlled drug release in 1 h-15% and in 48 h-80% drug release were observed, which is applicable to in-vivo applications. The present findings show that the APTES-Fe3O4 nanoparticles are promising for targeted curcumin drug delivery applications. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.