Curcuma leonidii, a new species of Curcuma subg. Hitcheniopsis (Zingiberaceae) from southern Vietnam is described and illustrated here. Curcuma leonidii with flowers similar to some Stahlianthus-like species but inflorescences consisting of up to 8 green bracts and their arrangements conforming to usual ‘classical’ Curcuma-like species provides the much-awaited morphological link between the tw...

Three chloroplast regions, rbcL, psbA-trnH and petA-psbJ were applied to assess the genetic relationships among six Curcuma medicinal species, which are difficult to distinguish from morphology. The Maximum Parsimony tree was conducted by Kimura 2-parameter model with MEGA 4. The genetic relationships were linked with geographical distributions among these six species; Curcuma sichuanensis is a...

We aimed to compare the anti-inflammatory activities of six species of Curcuma drugs using adjuvant arthritis model mice. When orally administered 1 day before the injection of adjuvant, the methanol extract of Curcuma phaeocaulis significantly inhibited paw swelling and the serum haptoglobin concentration in adjuvant arthritis mice. Also when orally administered 1 day after the injection of ad...

The sesquiterpenoids are one of major groups of antioxidants in Curcuma besides curcuminoids. However, the real substances contributing to the antioxidant activity are still unknown. In this paper, the antioxidant activity of sesquiterpenoids in four species and two essential oils from Curcuma genus was determined and compared based on TLC separation and DPPH bioautography assay. Their antioxid...

Curcuma, a genus of rhizomatous herbaceous species, has been used as a spice, traditional medicine, and natural dye. In this study, the metabolite profile of Curcuma extracts was determined using gas chromatography-time of flight mass spectrometry (GC/TOF MS) and ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC/Q-TOF MS) to characterize differences b...

The present work carried out to establish the necessary pharmacognostic standards, according to the WHO guidelines for evaluating the plant material of Curcuma pseudomontana J. Graham rhizome. Pharmacognostic parameters such as macroscopic, microscopic, physicochemical constituents, fluorescence analysis, nutritive value, behavior analysis of rhizome powder and TLC studies were performed. Macro...

The most commonly used plant source of β-elemene is Curcuma wenyujin Y. H. Chen & C. Ling (syn. of Curcuma aromatic Salisb.) with its content in supercritical CO₂ extract up to 27.83%. However, the other rich source of this compound is Nigella damascena L. essential oil, in which β-elemene accounts for 47%. In this work, the effective protocol for preparative isolation of β-elemene from a n...

Essential oils as defined by the European Pharmacopeia 7th edition “Odorant products, which have complex composition, and obtained from plant raw extract, either extracted steam of water, dry distillation or a suitable mechanical method without heating. Generally, physical is used for separation essential oil aqueous phase has no significant change in its chemical composition”. The are differen...

Methods were evolved for the detection of Curcuma longa in ayurvedic preparations. A simple method was also found out for the estimation of Curcuma longa in Vachalasunyadhi Taila using the formula -a = b/.32. Where a is the actual weight of Curcuma longa in Vilupatra Tailam and b is the weight obtained from graph of concentration of Curcuma longa VS OD. The methods evolved are so simple that it...