|
| Product name | Description | Uses |
|
| Whole rhizome (dried form) | Appearance: orange-brown, red-yellow, or pale yellow | Medicinal purposes |
| Chemical composition: it may contain 3–15% curcuminoids, and 1.5 to 5% essential oils |
| Preparation: finger rhizomes and mother rhizomes are generally boiled, separately for about 40–60 min, under slightly alkaline conditions. It should be followed by sun-drying for 10–15 days to diminish the moisture content about 10% |
|
| Ground turmeric | Appearance: either yellow or red-yellow in color | Used as a spice, dye, medicine, and as a dietary supplement |
| Chemical composition: the main active ingredients (i.e., curcuminoids and essential oils) may lessen during the process and also by exposure to light. It is necessary to pack the powder in a UV protective container |
| Preparation: dried finger rhizomes are grounded to produce its powder |
|
| Turmeric oil | Appearance: yellow to brown oil | Used as spice, medicine, and dietary supplement |
| Chemical composition: essential oils from the leaves are usually dominated by monoterpenes. Rhizomes oil mainly contains sesquiterpenes |
| Preparation: extract procured from dried rhizomes or leaves by steam distillation or supercritical CO2 extraction |
|
| Turmeric oleoresins | Appearance: dark yellow, reddish-brown viscous fluid | Used as a food coloring, medicine, and dietary supplement |
| Chemical composition: they consist of up to 25% essential oil and 37–55% curcuminoids |
| Preparation: extract from dried rhizomes by solvent extraction with organic solvents (acetone, dichloromethane, 1,2-dichloroethane, methanol, ethanol, isopropanol, and light petroleum (hexanes)) or by the application of supercritical CO2 extraction |
|
| Curcumin | Appearance: crystalline powder of yellow to orange-red color | Used as medicine and dietary supplement |
| Chemical composition: a mixture of curcumin and its bisdemethoxy- and demethoxy- derivatives (no fixed proportions). The three major curcuminoids may occupy 90% of the whole proportion. Oils and resins may be the minority of composition |
| Preparation: it is obtained by solvent extraction from ground turmeric rhizomes followed by the purification of the extract through the crystallization process |
| Organic solvents used for extraction are acetone, carbon dioxide, ethanol, ethyl acetate, hexane, methanol, and isopropanol |
|
