Chinese Medicine Turmeric Quality Control

Curcuma longa,a perennial herb,is a member of the Zingiberaceae(ginger)family. And it was collected when its caulis and leaves were perished in winter.It is usually boiled,cleaned,and dried,ablated its fibrous root.It cultivated extensively in Asia, India,China,and other countries with a tropical or subtropical climate,such Sichuan, Fujian and Guangxi of China.Therpaeutie activities of anti-tumor,combating cruor, combating,inflmamation,anti-oxidation,against early pregnnaey and liver protection have been wildly concerned for the applications of the Curemua longa L.in Chinese medieines by recent years.In recent years,it has been pointed out by many research papers that curcumin is effective anti-mutagenesis,as well as anti-cocarcinogen.Curcumin has been the third chemical prophylactic agent of tumor in the State Tumor Institut of Ameriena.The main components of Curcuma longa L.are curcuminoids and volatile oil,and the chemical constituents of the essential oil are very complicated.Which infect directly the quality of C.longa and its praeparatum are the amount of curcuminoids in C.longa and the variation of the chemical composition in volatile oil.Especially, whether the quality of the samples of C.longa from different regions and collecting times are stable is an urgent problem to resolve.In order to provide a resonable mean to evaluate the quality of Curcuma longa from diffferent habitats,we have taken some studies as follows,and gain some innovations.1.It is the first time to establish a method by using thin layer chromatography (TLC)for simultaneous identification of three curminoids of C.longa.It showed there is no bisdemethoxycurcumin in samples which collected from Guizhou(arvensis, cultivated),Fujian and some of that introduced from Guangxi.And there are three curcuminoids in other samples.2.It is the first time to determine the fingerprints of the essential oil of C.longa by using gas chromatograph-mass spectrum.The essential oils of thirty-three C.longa samples were obtained by steam distillation and their chemical components were separated and identified by GC-MS.The extraction rates of these plants which from different habitats were 0.7%～6.9%,and there are great differences in the components of essential oil.According to the differences of the volatile components in C.longa, we firstly established three types of GC-MS reference fingerprints respectively,which are useful and helpful for quality control of essential oil of C.longa collected from different habitats.3.Studies on curcuminoids.Firstly three curcuminods were got from the extract of Curcuma langa with column chromatography and these curcuminoids were identified as curcumin,dernethoxycurcumin and bisdemethoxycurcumin by nuclear magnetic resonance and mass spectrum.4.A fast,convenient and precise method was established to simultaneous determine three curcuminoids.Then,three curcuminoids of C.longa from different geographic locations and different collecting times,were determined by a reversed phase HPLC system.It showed the-curcumin,demethoxycurcumin and bisdernethoxycurcumin of C.longa vary greatly in different geographic locations,and determined that December was the best collecting time of C.longa,which cultivated in Guizhou.At last,summary of research development on C.longa in chemistry,analytical method and pharmacological action were summarized in this chapter.