Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Sep 2;9(9):1219.
doi: 10.3390/foods9091219.

Thai Curcuma Species: Antioxidant and Bioactive Compounds

Supawadee Burapan  1 , Mihyang Kim  2 , Yingyong Paisooksantivatana  3 , Bekir Engin Eser  4 , Jaehong Han  1
Affiliations

Thai Curcuma Species: Antioxidant and Bioactive Compounds

Supawadee Burapan et al. Foods. .

Abstract

For the functional food applications, antioxidant properties and the bioactive compounds of the 23 Curcuma species commercially cultivated in Thailand were studied. Total phenolic content and DPPH radical scavenging activity were determined. The concentrations of eight bioactive compounds, including curcumin (1), demethoxycurcumin (2), bisdemethoxycurcumin (3), 1,7-diphenyl-(4E,6E)-4,6-heptadien-3-ol (4), germacrone (5), furanodienone (6), zederone (7), and ar-turmerone (8), were determined from the Curcuma by HPLC. While the total phenolic content of C. longa was highest (22.3 ± 2.4 mg GAE/g, mg of gallic acid equivalents), C. Wan Na-Natong exhibited the highest DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picryl-hydrazyl-hydrate) radical scavenging activity. Twenty-three Curcuma species showed characteristic distributions of the bioactive compounds, which can be utilized for the identification and authentication of the cultivated Curcuma species. C. longa contained the highest content of curcumin (1) (304.9 ± 0.1 mg/g) and C. angustifolia contained the highest content of germacrone (5) (373.9 ± 1.1 mg/g). It was noteworthy that 1,7-diphenyl-(4E,6E)-4,6-heptadien-3-ol (4) was found only from C. comosa at a very high concentration (300.7 ± 1.4 mg/g). It was concluded that Thai Curcuma species have a great potential for the application of functional foods and ingredients.

Keywords: Curcuma; HPLC; antioxidant; bioactive; curcuminoids; sesquiterpenoids; total phenolic content.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Structure of curcuminoids and sesquiterpenoids isolated from Curcuma species.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Correlation chart of total phenolic content and DPPH radical scavenging antioxidant activity. The data are from Table 2, and only notable data are labeled in the chart.
Figure 3
Figure 3
HPLC chromatogram (420 nm) for C. zedoaria, C. longa, and Curcuma Wan Khamintong; I: curcumin (1), II: demethoxycurcumin (2), III: bisdemethoxycurcumin (3).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Ravindran P.N., Nirmal B.K., Sivaraman K., editors. Tumeric—The Genus Curcuma. CRC Press; Boca Raton, FL, USA: 2007. p. 504.
    1. Leong-Skornickova J., Sida O., Jarolimova V., Sabu M., Fer T., Travnicek P., Suda J. Chromosome numbers and genome size variation in Indian species of Curcuma (Zingiberaceae) Ann. Bot. Lond. 2007;100:505–526. doi: 10.1093/aob/mcm144. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Chen J., Xia N., Zhao J., Chen J., Henny R. Chromosome numbers and ploidy levels of Chinese Curcuma species. Hortic. Sci. 2013;48:525–530. doi: 10.21273/HORTSCI.48.5.525. - DOI
    1. Burapan S., Kim M., Han J. Curcuminoid demethylation as an alternative metabolism by human Intestinal microbiota. J. Agric. Food Chem. 2017;65:3305–3310. doi: 10.1021/acs.jafc.7b00943. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Pinkaew D., Changtam C., Tocharus C., Thummayot S., Suksamrarn A., Tocharus J. Di-O-demethylcurcumin protects SK-N-SH cells against mitochondrial and endoplasmic reticulum-mediated apoptotic cell death induced by Aβ25–35. Neurochem. Int. 2015;80:110–119. doi: 10.1016/j.neuint.2014.10.008. - DOI - PubMed