Phytochemical and pharmacological evaluation of various extracts of Curcuma caesia collected from Central India

A combinatorial approach of natural products with conventional drugs has brought a paradigm shift in current medical education and practices, thus creates a demand for more pharmacological discoveries. The family Zingiberaceae have earned widespread recognition in the pharmaceutical industry, but are limited to only a few species e.g. Curcuma longa, Zingiber officinale and Alpinia galanga etc. Curcuma caesia, a member of the Zingiberaceae family, is frequently employed as a folk medicine and might be used as novel therapeutic drugs, but not yet possible due to insufficient scientific data. The present study aims to detect the phytochemicals present in various extracts of C. caesia rhizome and with a comparative analysis of their antioxidant and antimicrobial properties. The qualitative and quantitative tests were performed by standard established methods and confirmed by Thin layer chromatography. The total phenolic and flavonoid content were found to be maximum in ethanol extract which is 47.89 mg Gallic acid/g and 73.8 mg Quercetin/g dry material, respectively. The total tannin content was higher in methanol extract (194.7 mg Tannic acid/g dry material). The antioxidant potential tested by 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl, Total Anti-oxidant capacity and Ferric reducing antioxidant power assay, and antibacterial properties checked against four bacterial species showed maximum activity with ethanol and methanol extracts. Thus, these two extracts were analyzed through GC-MS for identification of the active volatile compounds present. Existing literature suggests that many of these identified compounds have therapeutic potential, requiring additional validation to establish their significant phytopharmaceutical importance.