In this work, essential oils from Curcuma longa, Curcuma aromatica, and Curcuma caesia species were extracted using a hydrodistillation system, followed by drying with Na2SO4, and characterization with gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). Data revealed that oil yields determined for C. longa, C. aromatica, and C. caesia were 4.5, 2.9, and 2.1%, respectively. Moreover, GC/MS data displayed that C. longa oil mainly contained Tumerone (32.58%), Ar-tumerone (22.98%), and Curlone (17.08%). Whereas, C. aromatica mainly comprised of Tropolone (33.48%), Isosericenin (7.89%), and 10-Isopropenyl-3,7-cyclodecadien-1-one (13.71%). Interestingly, C. caesia constituted of Tropolone (35.62%), Curdione (23.89%), Isosericenin (3.34%), β-Elemen (1.61%), and Germacron (7.54%) as major components. The total polyphenol content of three essential oils described from C. caesia, C. aromatica, and C. longa were determined as 53.3 ± 0.56, 28.6 ± 0.28, and 24.3 ± 0.21 mg GAE/mL, respectively. This corresponded to higher antioxidant activities of C. aromatica and C. caesia oils expressed through half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) using 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl and ABTS (2,2′-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) assays than that of C. longa oil but not shown their antioxidant activity in the FRAP (fluorescence recovery after photobleaching) test. Contrastingly, C. aromatica oil showed the highest anticancer activity on MCF-7 (human breast carcinoma) and SK-LU-1 cell lines with IC50 of 54.78–57.97 µg/mL, followed by C. caesia oil (IC50 = 65.35–68.95 µg/mL), and Curcuma longa oil with IC50 determined between 151.77 and 207.08 µg/mL. All essential oils exhibited moderate antibacterial and antifungal activities on Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Bacillus subtilis, and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Our trial study demonstrated that C. longa, C. aromatica, and C. caesia with high yield of essential oils are promising feedstocks for large-scale extraction of turmeric oils, which have a potential to be used in the food and pharmaceutical industry.
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