Inter. J. of Phytotherapy / Vol 3 / Issue 1 / 2013 / 1-4.

e - ISSN - 2249-7722
Print ISSN - 2249-7730

International Journal of Phytotherapy

www.phytotherapyjournal.com

A CONCISE REVIEW ON CURCUMA ZEDOARIA

K. Tholkappiyavathi1, K. Muthamizh Selvan2, S.K. Neyanila2,
G. Prakash Yoganandam*2, V. Gopal
1

Dept. of Botany, Kanchi Mamunivar Center for Post Graduate Studies, Lawspet, Puducherry-605008.
Dept. of Pharmacognosy, College of Pharmacy, Mother Theresa Post Graduate & Research Institute of Health Sciences,
Gorimedu, Puducherry- 605006.

ABSTRACT
Medicinal plants have been of great importance to the health care needs of individuals and their
communities. The use of herbal preparations made from medicinal plants is widespread in developing countries. The
healing powers of traditional herbal medicines have been realized since antiquities. About 65% of the world
populations have access to local medicinal plant knowledge system. India is sitting on a gold mine of well-recorded
and traditionally well practiced knowledge of herbal medicine. This article discusses about the medicinal values of
Curcuma zedoaria. In this communication, we reviewed the pharmacological and phytochemistry of Curcuma
zedoaria and its application in the treatment of various ailments like anti-inflammatory, insecticide, anti-oxidants and
analgesic. This review discusses the investigation made by various workers related to chemical constituents,
pharmacological action and toxicological studies of this plant since years till date.
Key words: Curcuma zedoaria, Pharmacological actions, Review.
INTRODUCTION
Medicinal plants and derived medicine are widely used in
traditional cultures all over the world and they are
becoming increasingly popular in modern society as
natural alternatives to synthetic chemicals. In the last few
decades there has been an exponential growth in the field
of herbal medicine. It is getting popularized in developing
and developed countries owing to its natural origin and
lesser side effects. At the present juncture, the modern
conventional healthcare is burdened with great problems
of unsafe medicines, chronic diseases, resistant infections,
auto immune disorders and degenerative disorders of
ageing, despite great scientific advances. More than 70%
of Indias 1.1 billion populations still use these nonallopathic systems of medicine. India possesses almost
8% of the estimated biodiversity of the world with around
0.126% million species.
The World Health Organization (WHO)

population relies mainly on traditional medicines, mostly

plant drugs in their health care. Today, Ayurveda coexists
with modern system of medicine, and is still widely used
and practiced. About 30% of the currently used
therapeutics is of natural origin [1]. Curcuma zedoaria is
a starchy rhizomatous or tuberous from the family
Zingiberaceae, commonly known as ginger family.
Ginger is a general term for members or species of the
ginger families. Curcuma is the genus name of the
rhizomatous herb, of Zingiberaceae. The name was first
given by the Linnaeus species Plantarum from the Arabic
term meaning yellow colour, probably referring to the
colour of the rhizomes.
Taxonomic classification of Curcuma zedoaria
Kingdom:
Plantae
Subkingdom:
Viridaeplantae
Phylum:
Tracheophyta

Corresponding Author:- G. Prakash Yoganandam

~1~

Email: gprakashyoga@gmail.com

Inter. J. of Phytotherapy / Vol 3 / Issue 1 / 2013 / 1-4.

Division:
Magnoliophyta
Class:
Liliopsida
Super order:
Zingiberanae
Order:
Zingiberales
Family:
Zingiberales
Genus:
Curcuma
Species:
Curcuma zedoaria
Common Name: Zedoary.

diarrhea, coryza, dermatosis disorders and rheumatism

and promoting menstruation as a traditional medicine.
Antimicrobial
activity,
anti-inflammatory
antihepatotoxic, neuroprotective activity and cytotoxic effects
against human ovarian cancer cells are all regarded as
abilities of Curcumin productions from Curcuma zedoaria
and furthermore, zedoary natural products are used as
spices, tonics and also in perfumery with great luxurious
foliage that has high commercial value in floriculture the
rhizomes are also used in food industry as condiment and
dye. There have been many reports on the anti-allergic
effects of some plants in the Zingiberaceae family, such
as Curcuma longa and Curcuma zedoaria for treatment of
itching and other skin diseases, whereas Curcuma
zedoaria has been used as a substitute for Curcuma longa
and has recently been reported to show anti-allergic
activity as well [3].

Description and distribution

Curcuma zedoaria is locally known as kunyit
putih or temu putih. It is able to grow up to one and
half meters or even more. The leaves are around eighty
centimeters long and they usually have a purple-brown
flush along the midrib on both surfaces of the leaf. The
rhizomes are frequently confused with those of Curcuma
aeruginosa because both are of a similar colour (yellow).
However, they can be distinguished easily by conducting
a cross section on the rhizomes of the mature plants of
Curcuma aeruginosa which are slightly dark purplish. In
comparison, the colour of the rhizomes of Curcuma
zedoaria pale yellow or white. The rhizomes of Curcuma
aeruginosa are highly aromatic due to the high amount of
1, 8-cineol as 25.20%. Curcuma zedoaria grows mainly
in the East-Asian countries including China (called Erchu in Chinese), Vietnam, India, Bangladesh, Indonesia,
Malaysia and Japan.

In-vitro Anti bacterial activity

Banisalam et al had reported the in-vitro anti
bacterial activity in petroleum ether, chloroform and
methanol extracts against four bacterial strains including
two gram negative strains (Escherichia coli and
Pseudomonas aeruginosa) and two gram positive
strains (Bacillus cereus and Staphylococcus aureus)
using the agar well diffusion method. Growth
hormones namely indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) and 6Benzylaminopurine (BAP) were used in the in vitro
system separately between the range of 0.25 and 3.5 mg/l
for IBA and 0.5 and 4 mg/l for BAP and a mix formula
containing both hormones using the best ranges after
rapid tests. The results showed that the in vitro
system was more capable of inhibiting S. aureus
growth compared with in vivo system on the agar
plate. P.aeruginosa and E.coli growth were only
inhibited by the in vitro system on the agar plate,
while B. cereus was the only strain in the in vivo
system which produced higher inhibition zone on the
agar plate against its growth compared with the in vitro
system [4].

Chemical and molecular specification

Curcuma spp. contains turmerin (a water-soluble
peptide), essential oils (such as turmerones, atlantones
and zingiberene) and curcuminoids including Curcumin
with
the
formula:
[1,
7-bis-(4-hydroxy-3methoxyphenyl)-1, 6-heptadiene-3,5-Dione] and the
curcuminoids can be defined as phenolic compounds
derived from the roots of Curcuma spp. Curcumin
(diferuloylmethane) which is also called the Indian
saffron is a low molecular weight polyphenol, first
isolated almost two centuries ago and first chemically
characterized in 1910, that is generally regarded as the
most active constituent and comprises 28% of most
extract preparations. Curcuminoids exist in some
Zingiberaceae species such as Curcuma zedoaria (White
turmeric), Curcuma longa (Turmeric), Curcuma mangga
(Manogo ginger), Curcuma aromatic (Wild turmeric),
Curcuma xanthorrhiza (Ubat maaju) [2].

Anti-oxidant activity
Abbasi et al had reported the anti oxidant activity
of different fractions from Curcuma zedoaria by four
methods:
1,1-Diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl
radical
(DPPH) scavenging activity , total antioxidant activity ,
Ferric Reducing Antioxidant Power (FRAP) assay and
ferric thiocyanate assay. Chloroform soluble fraction
exhibited highest percent inhibition of DPPH radical i.e.
67.97 1.06% at concentration of 250 g/ml as
compared to other fractions. IC value of chloroform
fraction was found
to be 117.08 0.71 relative to
butylated 50 hydroxytoluene (BHT), having IC of
12.54 0.89 g/ml. It also showed highest value 50
of total antioxidant activity i.e.1.358 0.47 as well as
highest FRAPvalue (291.25 1.53 TE m M/mL), highest

Curcuma zedoaria and medicine

Curcuma zedoaria has been used traditionally in
many countries especially in South-East Asia as a folk
medicine for many centuries as a valuable medicinal
plant. In the traditional way, the dried rhizomes of
Curcuma zedoaria were selected to make drinks or to be
extracted as medicine. Curcuma zedoaria rhizome
extracts which contains Curcumin have been used to treat
stomach diseases, blood stagnation, hepato protection,

~2~

Inter. J. of Phytotherapy / Vol 3 / Issue 1 / 2013 / 1-4.

amount of total phenolic compounds (155.27 1.36 GAE

g/g) and highest percentage of inhibition of lipid
peroxidation (42.24 0.53%) as compared to other
studied fractions. Ethyl acetate soluble fraction showed
moderate to good antioxidant activity. The n- hexane
soluble fraction, n-butanol soluble fraction and remaining
aqueous fraction showed no activity [5].

400 mg/kg b/w reduced by 17.1% and 19.65%. No

significant changes were seen on LDL, VLDL and HDL
cholesterol levels [8].
Antidiabetic activity
Sadiq et al had reported the The antidiabetic
potency of the aqueous extract of the powder mixture of
dried fruits of Eucalyptus globules and rhizomes of
Curcuma zedoaria in a ratio of 10:1 was investigated
using streptozotocin as the diabetogenic agent. The
extract produced a significant anti-hyperglycemic activity
in dose dependant manner. The highest oral dose tested
(600mg/kg) produced significant anti-hyperglycemic
activity when compared with that of standard
Glibenclamide (180g/kg). The results of biochemical
estimations were reported as meanS.E.M. The total
variation present in the data was analyzed by one way
Analysis of Variance. It may be concluded that from this
study that the extract prepared from the above mentioned
formulation possess potential anti-hyperglycemic activity
[9].

Analgesic activity
Kamanashis Das and Mohammad Ashikur
Rahman had reported the analgesic activity of dried
leaves, stem and rhizomes of Curcuma zedoaria by using
acetic acid induced writhing test method. The methanolic
rhizome extracts had mild analgesic property (with
writhing inhibition of 66.67%). Pet ether extracts of the
rhizome, leave and stem had shown moderate analgesic
property (with writhing inhibition of 70.24 %, 75 %,
71.43 % respectively), while pet ether extracts of the
leaves showed significant analgesic property (with
writhing inhibition of 91.67 %) [6].
Anti-inflammatory activity
Madan Kaushik and Sunil Jalal pure had reported
theinflammatory activity of Curcuma zedoaria was studie
d in albino rats by using Carrageenan and Histamine indu
cedhind paw edema method. The paw edema was indu
cedby the subplantar injection of above inflammagens
, and oedema volume was recordedusing a plethysmo
meter. Curcuma zedoaria Rosc are traditionally used in tr
eatment of inflammation. Petroleum ether, chloroform an
d methanol root extracts of C. zedoaria were administered
orally half hour before inducing inflammation. All extrac
ts showed significant p<0.001 antiinflammatory activity e
xcept methanol extract, when compared to control with st
andard drugs (Indomethacin 10 mg/kg.i.p and Rumalaya f
orte 200 mg/kg). Amongst these extracts petroleum ether
200 and chloroform 400 mg/kg extracts of Curcuma zedo
aria showed maximum antiinflammatory activity on 2nd t
o 6th hours [7].

Anticancer activity
Muthu kumar et al had reported the anticancer
and antioxidant activity of Curcuma zedoaria and
Curcuma amada rhizome extracts. The isopropyl extract
of C. zedoaria exhibited high anticancer activity
compared to acetone extract of C. amada. Crude protein
of C. zedoaria showed good anticancer activity when
compared to crude protein of C. amada. Acetone extract
of C. zedoaria showed high radical scavenging activity of
88.7% and superoxide scavenging activity recording
83.15%. Acetone extract of C. zedoaria showed 82.5%
hydroxyl radical scavenging activity [10].
Anti-arthritic activity
Madan Kaushik and Sunil Jalalpure had reported
the effects of petroleum ether, chloroform, and methanol
root extracts of Curcuma zedoaria Rosc (Family:
Zingiberaceae) on behavioral and radiology aspects of
Freund's Complete Adjuvant (FCA)-induced mono
arthritis in left ankle joint of rats using open-field test.
Traditionally, Curcuma zedoaria root has been used as
anti-inflammatory and anti-arthritic drug. Behavioral
aspects include latency time to explore, ambulatory,
rearing, grooming, urination, and defecation. Animals
were divided into ten groups each of six rats, all the
animals were subjected to open-field test before the
induction of arthritis at 0 day and thereafter 3, 7, 14 21,
28, 35, and 42 days of postinoculation FCA injection. The
rat was placed in an open field and observed all
behavioral aspects for 5 minutes and radiography analysis
was made on day 42. Selected doses were 10 mg/kg.p.o.
Indomethacin 200 mg/kg.p.o. Marketed herbal drug
Rumalaya forte and 200 and 400 mg/kg.p.o. of each
extracts, respectively. The results showed significant

Antihyperlipidemic Activity
Srividya et al had reported the antihyperlipidemic activity of hydro-ethanolic extract of
Curcuma zedoaria rhizome by in-vitro anti oxidant
methods. Total phenol content was found to be 34.451.9
expressed as mg/g equivalent of gallic acid. Total
flavonoid content was found to be 45.562.38 mg/g
equivalent of quercetin. In vitro antioxidant activity IC50
value for hydroethanolic extract was found to be
93016.35 for DPPH method, >1000 g/ml for Nitric
oxide method. Concentration required for reducing power
was found to be 2.5250.023 g/ml. total antioxidant
capacity was found to be 230.21.32 which was
expressed as mM equivalent of Ascorbic acid. The extract
was found to be effective in reducing TC levels after 12
days of pre treatment with extract at a dose of 200 and

~3~

Inter. J. of Phytotherapy / Vol 3 / Issue 1 / 2013 / 1-4.

decrease in ambulation and rearing; however, increase in

latency time to explore and grooming, urination, and
defecation in control group, but in contrast, drug-treated
groups showed significant recovery in all behavioral
aspects except methanol groups. On the basis of
radiography examination, control and methanol groups

showed highest swelling compared with normal group;

however, all drug-treated groups showed significant
reduced swelling. Treatments with petroleum ether and
chloroform extracts recovery were observed in behavioral
and radiological aspects in arthritic rats [11].

REFERENCES
1. Mau JL, Lai EYC, Wang NP, Chen CC, Chang CH, Chyau CC.Composition and antioxidant activity of the essential oil
from Curcuma zedoaria. Food Chem, 82, 2003, 583-591.
2. Aggarwal B B, Kumar A, Bharti A C: Anticancer potential of curcumin: preclinical and clinical studies.
Anticancer Res, 23(1), 2003, 363398.
3. Stanly C, Bhatt A, Keng CL. A comparative study of Curcuma zedoaria and Zingiber zerumbet plantlet
production using different micropropagation systems. Afr. J. Biotech, 9(28), 2010, 4326-4333.
4. Banisalam B, Sani W, Philip K, Imdadul H and Khorasani A. Comparison between in-vitro and in-vivo antibacterial
activity of Curcuma zedoaria from Malaysia. African Journal of Biotechnology, 10(55), 2011, 11676-11681.
5. Auheeda Riaz , Muhammad Athar Abbasi, Aziz-ur-Rehman, Ayyaba Shahzadi, Muhammad Zahid Qureshi and
Khalid Mohammed Khan. Antioxidant activity and radical scavenging effects of various fractions from Curcuma
zedoaria. Asian Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biological Research, 1(4), 2011, 525-533.
6. Kamanashis Das and Mohammad Ashikur Rahman. Analgesic and Anti-microbial activities of Curcuma zedoari.
International Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, 4(5), 2012, 322-328.
7. Madan Kaushik and Sunil Jalalpure. Anti-inflammatory efficacy of Curcuma zedoaria
Rosc root extracts. Asian Journal of Pharmaceutical and Clinical Research, 4(3), 2011, 90-92.
8. Srividya AR, Dhanabal SP, Ajit Kumar Yadav, Sathish Kumar MN and Vishnuvarthan VJ. Phytopreventive antihyperlipidemic activity of Curcuma zedoaria. Bulletin of Pharmaceutical Research, 2(1), 2012, 22-5.
9. Jaffar Sadiq M, Bheemachari, Shiv Kumar, Vigneshwaran E, Kalava Balaji. A Study on Antidiabetic potency of
mixture of powders of dried fruits of Eucalyptus globules and rhizomes of Curcuma zedoaria. Research Journal of
Pharmaceutical, Biological and Chemical Sciences, 2(3), 2011, 326-332.
10. Muthu kumar T, Mary Violet Christy A, Anusha Mangadu, Malaisamy M, Sivaraj C, Arjun P, Raaman P and
Balasubramanian K. Anticancer and antioxidant activity of Curcuma zedoaria and Curcuma amada rhizome extracts. J.
Acad. Indus. Res, 1(2), 2012, 91-96.
11. Effect of Curcuma zedoaria Rosc root extracts on behavioral and radiology changes in arthritic rats. Madan
Kaushik and Sunil Jalalpure. J Adv Pharm Technol Res, 2(3), 2011, 170176.

~4~