<p>Curcumin has potential application as a colorimetric sensor and can be used to monitor the freshness of foods; however, some of its physicochemical properties, such as its solubility and stability, limit its use. In the present work, a natural curcumin extract was incorporated into organic‒inorganic hybrid silica matrices produced by the sol-gel method using ammonium fluoride as the main catalyst. Curcumin was encapsulated in the presence of a series of organosilanes (methytriethoxysilane, octyltriethoxysilane, octadecyltrimethoxysilane and 3-(aminopropyltriethoxysilane); this resulted in a set of hybrid silicas that were characterized by a series of complementary analytical techniques. The immobilization of the compounds in a solid matrix could cause a shift in the maximum absorption bands in the ultraviolet‒visible region due to the interactions between the organic molecules and the solid support. When curcumin was incorporated into silica, a small disturbance in the percentage of cyclic siloxane arrangements was observed. Nitrogen porosimetry demonstrated that the pore structures remained similar to those of the respective matrices; however, significant variation was observed in the porosities of these materials, and the specific areas varied between 211.1 m²g⁻¹ and 551.2 m²g⁻¹. The incorporation of curcumin into different silica matrices improved the performance of the sensors for ammonia detection by up to 3.5 times greater than that obtained by the free compound.</p> Graphical Abstract <p></p>