Extraction of essential oil from turmeric (curcuma longa) / Muhammad Hafizuddin Mokhtar

Curcuma longa is a scientific name for turmeric. Turmeric has been used in
India cuisine especially curries for long time ago. Turmeric also widely used
in traditional medicine and has been proven by researchers where this plant
have ability to treat various kind of diseases such as antibacterial, antifungal,
anti-inflammatory, anti-tumour, anti-cancer, and used in respiratory and
gastrointestinal disorders. In this study, hydro distillation technique was used
to extract turmeric essential oil with factor of times. A solvent extraction was
used to extract chemical compounds of turmeric. Ethanol and hexane were
used as extract solvent to extract compounds from hydro distillation product.
Rotary evaporator was used to purify the sample extraction. The samples
were placed in rotary evaporation at 60°C for both solvents. The GC-MS
analysis showed the chemical constituent that presented in turmeric essential
oil. Several new chemical constituents were detected which are methyl
dehydroabietate, 2 - [4 - methyl - 6 - (2, 6, 6 - trimethylcyclohex - 1 - enyl) hexa
- 1, 3, 5 - trienyl] - cyclohex - 1 - en - 1 - carboxaldehyde, 1 Phenanthrenecarboxylic
acid, and Estra-l,3,5 (10)-trien-17ᵝ - ol where are not
yet reported in any turmeric essential oil studies. These chemical constituents
are might useful for medical purposes as anti-fungal, antibacterial and anti arrhythmic
activities. The high yield of turmeric essential oil was obtained
from chloroform solvent extraction for 2 different time compare to yield of
hexane solvent.