JOURNAL OF CRITICAL REVIEWS ISSN- 2394-5125 VOL 7, ISSUE 16, 2020 A REVIEW ON GOLDEN SPECIES OF ZINGIBERACEAE FAMILY: GENUS CURCUMA Abdul Mubasher Furmuly1, Najiba Azemi 2 1Department of Analytical Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, Kabul University, Jamal Mina, 1001 Kabul, Kabul, Afghanistan 2Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Education, Balkh University, 1701 Balkh, Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan Corresponding author: [email protected] First Author: [email protected] Received: 18 March 2020 Revised and Accepted: 20 June 2020 ABSTRACT: The genus Curcuma pertains to the Zingiberaceae family and consists of 70-80 species of perennial rhizomatous herbs. This genus originates in the Indo-Malayan region and it is broadly spread all over the world across tropical and subtropical areas. This study aims to provide more information about morphological features, biological activities, and phytochemicals of genus Curcuma for further advanced research. Because of its use in the medicinal and food industries, Curcuma is an extremely important economic genus. Curcuma species rhizomes are the source of a yellow dye and have traditionally been utilized as spices and food preservers, as a garnishing agent, and also utilized for the handling of various illnesses because of the chemical substances found in them. Furthermore, Because of the discovery of new bioactive substances with a broad range of bioactivities, including antioxidants, antivirals, antimicrobials and anti-inflammatory activities, interest in their medicinal properties has increased. Lack of information concerning morphological, phytochemicals, and biological activities is the biggest problem that the researcher encountered. This review recommended that collecting information concerning the Curcuma genus may be providing more opportunities for further advanced studies lead to avoid wasting time and use this information for further research on bioactive compounds which are beneficial in medicinal purposes KEYWORDS: genus Curcuma; morphology; phytochemicals; pharmacological 1. INTRODUCTION The family of gingers or Zingiberaceae contains more than 1,500 species in 53 genera around the world. The Zingiberaceae family composed of elegant fleshy inflorescences with rhizomatous plants that occur terminally and laterally. Among 120 species, Curcuma is considered the largest genera and commonly utilized as spices, medicinal items, colorants, and ornamental plants (Leong-Škorničková et al., 2007). Therefore, the Curcuma genus is standard for its commercial value, for example, Curcuma longa used as a flavor, coloring, drug, and makeups. The genus is also known for its ornamental and medicinal importance (Nopporncharoenkul et al., 2020). Curcuma is naturally spread across the tropical and subtropical regions of Asia (Maknoi, 2006), China, South Pacific region, Thailand, Indochina, Malaysia, Indonesia in India, West Africa, South America, and eventually spread to northern Australia (Kaliyadasa & Samarasinghe, 2019). Twenty species were recorded from South India and one variety (Sabu, 2006). Out of the 70 species, approximately 40 are recorded in India (Bhutia & Sharangi, 2017). Due to their medicinal activity, most of the Curcuma rhizomes are commonly utilized in indigenous medication, primarily antimicrobials (Santhoshkumar & Yusuf, 2019), anticancerous (Upadhyay et al., 2013), antidiarrheal and anti-inflammatory. As the rhizomes are more similar in whole species, they are typically utilized with the common name Curcuma (Santhoshkumar & Yusuf, 2019). The term "Curcuma" comes from the Arabic word "curcumin" meaning a yellow color (Xu et al., 2017). Curcuma species have been used in Indian and Southeast Asian traditional medicine to treat numerous human illnesses, and are supposed to have many organic activities. Turmeric (C. longa) is an effective yellow coloring source (Srivilai et al., 2018). In many Asian countries, different parts of such species of plants were consumed either cooked or raw as vegetables (Devi et al., 2014). Besides, they are also found healthy foods in nutrition. Since turmeric plants provide a rich power supply of carbohydrates, proteins, starch, fats, minerals, and vitamins (Yadav & Tarun, 2017). Moreover, they utilized for the remedy of different ailments such as hepatic disorders, skin diseases, diabetes, chest pain, blood purifier, enlarged liver, cough, stomach ulcer, spleen, boils, and rheumatism (Saikia & Borthakur, 2010). Because of its promising potential and a wide variety of uses, plants belonging to the Curcuma 882 JOURNAL OF CRITICAL REVIEWS ISSN- 2394-5125 VOL 7, ISSUE 16, 2020 genus are gaining popularity worldwide and have been subjected to many investigations and explorations in the last years. Therefore, appropriate physicochemical and morphological recognition is required, although, still not being investigated systematically. This research aims to gain an overall overview of morphology, pharmacology, and phytochemistry of the genus Curcuma. 2. GENUS CURCUMA Nature has been exploring by human beings since ancient times, particularly plants looking for new drugs. This has contributed to a large quantity of medicinal florae with healing properties being used to treat numerous diseases (Anjusha & Gangaprasad, 2014). Around a third of all pharmaceutical products currently on the market come from natural sources (Kingston, 2011). Also, curative plants are significant nowadays for the global economy. Many florae are main sources of beneficial secondary metabolites used in the pharmacological, agrochemical, flavoring, and fragrance industries (Cowan, 1999). Phytochemical screening of remedial plants is very useful in discovering new sources of compounds that are of therapeutic and industrial significance. An urgent step to screen the plants for secondary metabolites is imperative (Anjusha & Gangaprasad, 2014). Several secondary plant metabolites are important commercially and find use in a variety of pharmaceutical compounds (Cowan, 1999). The medicinal components of the rhizomes have been recorded from various aspects of Curcuma species via different authors (AL-Reza et al., 2011). Owing to the various biologically dynamic molecules existing in them, medicinal florae in their innate and administered form have been extensively used in traditional medication over the years (Hajimehdipoor et al., 2014). Typically, members of the Curcuma genus are rich in phenolic compounds such as curcumin, demethoxycurcumin, and bisdemethoxycurcumin(Jung et al., 2012; Zhang et al., 2014). It is empirically observed that the Curcuma rhizomes have several benefits. One potential advantage is the antioxidant activity related to the curcuminoids (Inayatilah, 2017). These also comprise essential oils with various types of oil and terpenoid content (Jung et al., 2012; Zhang et al., 2014; Awin et al., 2016). Curcumin gained attention because of its anti-cancer, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antimicrobial effects (Baspinar et al., 2017). There is a strong traditional significance of the turmeric (C. longa), black turmeric (C. cassia), and wild turmeric (C. aromatic). C. longa is called "Saffron Indian" due to its golden hue. It is commonly utilized in, Unani, Siddha, Ayurveda, and Chinese medication for the treatment of different illnesses. C. longa is the most shared old-style medication in Indian and Chinese medicinal products utilized as antibacterial, antioxidant, anticancer, anti-HIV, antifungal, immunomodulatory, anti-inflammatory, colic and chest pain relief and menstrual problems (Aggarwal et al., 2007). More than 100 components of the rhizomes and turmeric leaves were isolated. The impact of C. longa is due to the existence of diarylheptanoid compounds known collectively as curcuminoids (Inoue et al., 2008). Black turmeric has been utilized in India to cure allergies, jaundice, liver disease, nausea, asthma, inflammation, diarrhea, heartburn, muscle relaxing sprains, hemorrhoids, stomach pain, leprosy, cancer, rash, chronic cough, wound, vomiting, snakebite, anthelmintic, aphrodisiac, epilepsy and gonorrhoeal discharges (Arumozhi et al., 2006) Products rhizomes of C. comosa was developed for use in traditional Thai medication as an anti-inflammatory remedy and to treat uterine disorders and ovarian hormone deficiency (Tabboon et al., 2019). C. cassia and C. amada, the neglected plant, also contains a large variety of pharmaceutical properties. Curcuma caesia is popularly identified as black turmeric, a perpetual herb growing in the Himalayan region, Northeastern, and Central India (Sahu & Saxena, 2013). Traditionally, rhizome paste is used to treat the tumor, asthma, piles, leucoderma, etc. The essential oil of C. Cassia for its antifungal role has been identified. Curcuma amada is known generally as mango-ginger has a distinctive mango- like odor and used in pickles, dumplings, salads, sauces, and chutneys as the main ingredient (Yogamaya et al., 2012). Therapeutically, mango ginger is used in conventional and ayurvedic medication to treat a variety of mood and medical conditions (Policegoudra et al., 2011). 3. OTHER USAGES OF CURCUMA SPECIES It has been documented that the Curcuma genus comprises 70-80 annual rhizomatous plants, widely spread worldwide along with tropical and subtropical areas. Curcuma rhizomes are yellow and have been commonly used as spices and food preservatives (Ferreira et al., 2013), as a flavoring agent and as a cure for the remedy of various diseases because of chemical constituents. Regardless of their volatile oils, certain