Comparative phytochemical screening of bioactive compounds in Curcuma caesia Roxb. and Curcuma longa

Abstract

The traditional system of medicine involves the use of different plant extracts or the bioactive constituents for treating various ailments. It is important to establish and compare the phytochemical profiles of lesser known medicinal plant (C. caesia) with the well-known species of the genus (C. longa) for phytochemical similarities or dissimilarity for further drug formulations in this unexplored plant. Thus, this study was conducted which involved soxhlet extraction from leaves and rhizome of both the plant using methanol and chloroform solvents, phytochemical testing for identification of secondary metabolites and thin layer chromatography profiling for presence of curcuminoids. In Curcuma longa, the methanolic extract of rhizome yielded 39.8% while in Curcuma caesia, yield was 6.4%. In Curcuma caesia alkaloids and tannins were found in addition to other metabolites while they were absent in Curcuma longa. In TLC profiling, the rhizome of both the Curcuma species showed presence of curcuminoids while in leaves only methanolic extract in C. longa showed distinctable bands for curcuminoids and in C. caesia, leaves showed only presence of curcumin while dis-methoxycurcumin and bis-demethoxycurcumin was found absent. Presence of medicinally important bioactive compounds in Curcuma caesia depicts that it has great potential for becoming a future drug. © 2013 Academic Journals Inc.