TURMERIC

Morphology of Turmeric Plant

Curcuma domestica Val or Curcuma longa is the Latin name of turmeric plant. Curcuma longa is sometimes used to describe a finger-shaped turmeric rhizome. Turmeric belongs to the Plantae kingdom (plant), the division of Spermatophyta (seed plant), the subdivision of Angiospermae (covered seed), the Monocotyledonae class (the one-piece bean), the Zingiberales order, Zingiberceae family, genus Curcuma, Curcuma domestica Val species. This plant originated in Southeast Asia and South Asia but is now commonly found in other regions such as India, China, Himalaya and Indonesia (Purseglove et al., 1981).

Turmeric is an herbal plant and its height can reach 100 cm. stems turmeric pure, erect, round, rhizome shape and yellowish green. Single turmeric leaves, elongated lanceolate, leaflets numbered 3-8, tip and base of pointed leaf, flat leaf edge, pinnate and green inclination. Turmeric flowers are yellow or pale yellow and bloom simultaneously. The parent rhizomes push, while the rhizome branch is straight or slightly curved. The entire rhizomes form a dense clump, orange and white buds. Roots of turmeric fibers are light brown. The plant part used is the rhizomes or roots.

Health Benefits

Turmeric rhizome contains essential oil with compound among others fellandrene, sabinene, sineol, borneol, zingiberene, kurkumin, turmeron, kamfene, kamfor, sesquiterpene, kafrilat acid, methoxycinnamic acid and tolilmetil karbinol. In addition, turmeric rhizome also contains flour and dye containing kurcumin alkaloids. Turmeric rhizome has pharmacological effects such as blood circulation, anti-imflamasi, antibacterial, bile expenditure, antipyretic and icteric hepatitis. (Mahendra, 2005).

Chemical Composition of Turmeric

The main content in the rhizome consists of essential oils, curcumin, resin, oleoresin, desmetoksikurkumin, and bidesmetoksikurkumin, resin, gum, fat, protein, calcium, phosphorus and iron. The yellow substance (kurkumin) is used as a dye for human food and livestock. Chemical content of turmeric essential oil consists of ar-tumeron, α and β-tumeron, tumerol, α-atlanton, β-kariofilen, linalol, 1,8 sineol. Cultivation technology following the recommendation, with reference to proper application of SPO, the production of fresh turmeric rhizome reaches 11 tons / ha, with 8-11% curcumin (Rahardjo et al., 1987). According to Chattopadhyay et al. (2004) turmeric contains 5.8% essential oil composed by 1% pellandrn, 6% sabien, 1% cineol, 0.5% borneol, zingiberen 25% and sesquiterpen 53%. The yellow color of turmeric comes from a dye content called curcumin (diferulolylmethane) (3-4%). The derivatives of curcumin compounds include demetoksi and biodemetoksi kurkumin. The content of curcumin compounds varies with turmeric varieties. Curcumin exhibits anticoagulant activity by inhibiting collagen and adrenaline induced platelet aggregation (Chattopadhyay et al., 2004).