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Antimicrobials; antioxidants; biological activities; biochemical constituents; Curcuma amada; Mango ginger

Mango ginger (Curcuma amada Roxb.) is a unique spice having morphological resemblance with ginger but imparts a raw mango flavour. The main use of mango ginger rhizome is in the manufacture of pickles and culinary preparations. Ayurveda and Unani medicinal systems have given much importance to mango ginger as an appetizer, alexteric, antipyretic, aphrodisiac, diuretic, emollient, expectorant and laxative and to cure biliousness, itching, skin diseases, bronchitis, asthma, hiccough and inflammation due to injuries. The biological activities of mango ginger include antioxidant activity, antibacterial activity, antifungal activity, anti-inflammatory activity, platelet aggregation inhibitory activity, cytotoxicity, antiallergic activity, hypotriglyceridemic activity, brine-shrimp lethal activity, enterokinase inhibitory activity, CNS depressant and analgesic activity. The major chemical components include starch, phenolic acids, volatile oils, curcuminoids and terpenoids like difurocumenonol, amadannulen and amadaldehyde. This article brings to light the major active components present in C. amada along with their biological activities that may be important from the pharmacological point of view.

R S Policegoudra¹ S M Aradhya² L Singh¹

1. Department of Biotechnology, Defence Research Laboratory, Tezpur 784 001, India
2. Fruit and Vegetable technology Department, Central Food Technological Research Institute, Mysore 570 020, India

Published

September 2011

Manuscript received

15 December 2010

Accepted

13 June 2011

Early published

16 August 2011

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