The essential oil of Curcuma mangga Val. & Zijp. (Zingiberaceae) dried rhizome was isolated using simultaneous hydro-distillation. The oil was analysed by GC and GCMS. The rhizome oil contained 97 constituents, comprising 89.5% of the oil. The major compounds identified as myrcene (46.5%), β-pinene (14.6%), perillene (4.2%), caryophyllene oxide (3.01%), α-pinene (2.46%), γ-bicyclohomofarnesal
... [Show full abstract] (2.3%), caryophyllene (2.2%) and β-Ocimene (2.0%). Curcuma, a genus of the family Zingiberaceae, comprises about 70 species distributed over the tropics from India, Burma, Indochina, Thailand, Malaysia to Queensland and the Pacific Islands. The rhizomes and leaves of the plants contain volatile oils on steam distillation or solvent extraction which contribute to their medicinal importance. Curcuma mangga Val. & Zijp., locally known amongst Malays as "temu pauh", Thais as "kamin khao", Indonesian as "temu mangga", Sundanese as "koneng lalab" and Madurese as "temo pao". Its generic name "mango turmeric" or "mango ginger", is because of its mango-like smell when fresh rhizomes are cut. C. mangga has been using as vegetable or food decoration in Thai cuisine, its rhizomes also widely used as traditional medicine for relieving stomach complaints, gastric ulcer, chest pain, fever, and general debility. Besides, it has also been used in postpartum care, specifically to aid womb healing. In the Malay Peninsula and Indonesia, it has been used for curing fevers and for abdominal problems. Hydrodistillation of the dried rhizomes yielded a yellow oil with a distinct sharp mango odour. A total ion chromatogram obtained from the GC and GC/MS analysis is presented in Figure 1. Oil constituents were identified by comparison of retention times and mass spectra with computer databases (Wiley, ADAMS and Mass Finder). 97 components comprising of 89.5% of the total components detected from the rhizome oil were identified. The oil are dominated with 78.6% of monoterpenes and related compounds (M), followed by 4.8% of sesquiterpenes compounds (S), 3.5% of labdane or drimane and related nor compounds (L), 2.4% of diterpenes other than labdane compounds (D) and 0.2% of other compounds (O). The major components of the rhizome oil were identified as myrcene (46.5%), β-pinene (14.6%), perillene (4.2%), caryophyllene oxide (3.01%), α-pinene (2.46%, 4.242), γ-bicyclohomofarnesal (2.3%), caryophyllene (2.2%) and β-Ocimene (2.0%). myrcene -pinene O perillene o Caryophyllene oxide -pinene o -bicyclohomofarnesal (E)-Caryophyllene (E)--Ocimene Myrcene and β-pinene, which were found as major components in C. mangga were also found in other several Curcuma species, for instance, in C. amada volatile oil with 80.54% and 4.64%, respectively 3. On the other hand, the compounds were also found as minor compounds in C. zedoaria and C. longa, ranging from 0.5-1.0% of myrcene and 0.1-0.2% of β-pinene 3,6,7,8,9. Myrcene was found as the second highest compound in C. longa volatile oil (12.6%) 6 , whilst β-pinene was found as a minor component in C. sichuanensis (0.9%) 4. The volatile oil of Curcuma mangga showed inactive activity (IC 50 of >100 µg/ml) in anti-allergic activity which analyzing the inhibitory effects on the release of β-hexosaminidase from RBL-2H3 cells 10. The oil showed moderate free radical scavenging activity with the IC 50 value of 100µg/ml and low free radical (NO) synthesis activity with the IC 50 value of >250µg/ml, possibly due to its constituents 5. Myrcene was reported as an analgesic substance 11. It also has been tested in several activities such as an antimicrobial activity 1,12 , antioxidant activities 1,2,13 , cytotoxic activity 14 , hypoglycaemic activity 13 , hepatoxic and genotoxic activities 15 , antimutagenic activity 16 and toxicity profiling activity 11. β-pinene, was reported active in some activities previously, for instance the antifungal and antibacterial activities 12,17 , antioxidant activity 12,17 , anti-inflammatory and antinociceptive activities 18. The microbial transformation (bioconversion) of α-and β-pinene is of considerable potential interest for application to the flavour and fragrance industries. The essential oil of Eucalyptus tereticornis consisted in α-and β-pinene were reported as the active agents on isolated tracheal rings. In another report of the pinene-containing essential oil of Ferula gummosa Boiss exhibits spasmolytic properties on rat ileum, but a mixture of its constituents (α-and β-pinene) causes ileal contractions 19. Based on the chemical constituents and the possible activities of the oil, Curcuma mangga seems to be a good candidate for more in-depth studies. The research has been supported by the Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia (MOHE), Malaysia and Univerisiti Malaysia Kelantan (UMK), Malaysia. Curcuma mangga images: www.flickr.com/photos/kadai and http://dqfarm.blogspirit.com 25 grams of dried rhizomes of Curcuma mangga (KL5728) hydrodistillation for 3 hours using a Clevenger-type apparatus oils were extracted from the water with dichloromethane kept in air tight containers at 4 o C before use GC/MS analysis : Hewlett-Packard 6890N Gas Chromatograph, equipped with a fused silica capillary column HP-5MS (5 % phenylmethylsiloxane) (30 m x 0.25 mm x 0.25µm film thickness), Agilent Technologies, USA which is coupled with a 5975B mass selective detector from Hewlett-Packard. The injector and interface were operated at 250 o C and 300 o C, respectively. The oven temperature initially was set at 70 o C for 10 minutes, and then programmed to 290 o C at 5 o C min-1 , isothermally held for 10 minutes using helium as the carrier gas at a flow rate of 1.0ml min-1. 1µl of sample oil solution in diethyl ether (1:100) was injected in a pulsed split mode (the flow was 1.5ml min-1 for the first 0.5 min and then set to 1.0ml min-1 throughout the remainder of the analysis; split ratio 40:1). MS conditions were; ionization voltage 70eV, acquisition mass range 35-500, scan time 0.32s. Oil constituents were identified by comparison of their linear retention indices and their mass spectra with those of authentic standards, as well as those from ADAMS, Wiley 6, NIST02, Mass Finder 2.3, and a homemade MS library with the spectra corresponding to pure substances and components of known essential oils. GC-FID analysis was carried out under the same experimental conditions using the same column as described for the GC-MS. The percentage composition of the oil was computed from the GC peak areas without any corrections.
