Medicinal & Aromatic Plants
Open Access

Editorial Note on Curcuma longa (L.)

Reshma Mohanraj^{* *}Correspondence: Reshma Mohanraj, Department of Pharmacognosy, Hyderabad, India, Email:

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Editorial

Curcuma longa L. generally known as turmeric, a member of the ginger family (Zingiberaceae), has rhizomes below the ground. It is native to southwest India with its rhizomes being the source of a bright yellow spice with various homoeopathic applications. Three curcuminoids, demethoxycurcumin, bisdemethoxycurcumin, and curcumin of which curcumin is the utmost prevalent, are among many bio-active ingredients in turmeric. The yellow pigment curcumin or diferuloylmethane. It was used as a spice in Asian cuisine and as a medicinal & aromatic plant for cure of pain, inflammation, digestive disorders and wound healing. It is extensively cultivated throughout the tropics and similarly used for it therapeutic value, in the ornamental industry, and as a dye. It has been used for thousands of years as a medicine in the traditional Indian and folk medicine for the cure of a large variety of diseases, such as infectious diseases, inflammation, and hepatic, gastric, and blood disorders. Curcumin is a foremost isolated polyphenol from the rhizome of turmeric.

Curcuma longa is used as an everyday remedy as anti-inflammatory, anti-septic and irritant in the form of masks on skin and dyestuff for dye silk and wool. It is one of the key ingredients of pooja in Hindu mythology. Curcuma genera has about 70 species, some medicinally important species are C. zanthorrhiza, C. amada, C. zedoria, C. caesia and C. arometica. In Ayurveda, it is recommended in condition of pitta and kapha. The key component of the root is a volatile oil, containing turmerone, and there are other colouring agents called curcuminoids in turmeric. Curcuminoids consist of dihydrocurcumin, 5’-methoxycurcumin, and curcumin demethoxycurcumin which are found to be natural antioxidants. Curcuma longa is also used in synthetic food products such as canned dairy products, beverages, cereals, sauces, ice cream, yellow cakes, baked products, yogurt, orange juice, biscuits, popcorn, sweets, cake icings, and gelatins. It is an important constituent in most commercial curry powders. Consumption of gram quantities of curcumin powder by human subjects was needed to obtain assessable quantities of circulating curcumin from which discernable biological actions were inconsistently detected.

Curcuma longa L. can be regarded as a drug for the management of many illnesses, such as inflammations, muscular disorders, hepatic disorders, microbial infections, cancer, arthritic, diabetes, anorexia, biliary disorders, cough, diabetic wounds, and sinusitis. Curcuma longa L. has a wide range of pharmacological effects such as anti-tumor, anti-microbial, anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, and hepatoprotective activities.

Some of the research studies stated that the volatile oil of Curcuma longa was effective in anti-hyaluronidase and action antiinflammatory. The cytotoxic activity against CNS melanoma, leukemia, colon cancer, renal and breast cancer were also observed during the research. Leaf oil of Curcuma longa also shown potent anti-inflammatory activity in carranngenin induced paw edema.

Current studies and market report reveals that the maximum potential of Curcuma longa is utilized as flavouring agent, in external applications and for the treatment of some common disease. Preliminary report in experimental studies says it is significantly effective in disease related to liver, heart, cancer and immunological disorders.

We hope that the findings from this research will encourage the design of appropriate studies to identify effective flavonoids in dietary food supplements. Further study is justified to identify the individual bio-active compounds in turmeric underlying this high anti-oxidant activity. There is a need to exploit its extreme potential in the field of medicinal and pharmaceutical sciences for innovative and fruitful application, because Curcuma longa is a holistic gift nature.