A. Maheswaran

In recent year there has been rapid increase in the standardization of selected medicinal plant of potential therapeutic significance. The rhizome of Curcuma longa reported to have good medicinal values in traditional system of medicines. The present study deals with pharmacognostic parameters for the rhizomes of Curcuma longa which mainly consist of Macromorphology, Physico-chemical constants and Phytochemical screening. This information will be used for further pharmacological and instrumental evaluation of the species and will assist in standardization for quality, purity and sample identification. Physicochemical parameters such as total ash value, acid insoluble ash value and water soluble ash value were determined which were 14.69, 1.20 and 4.12% w/w respectively. The alcohol soluble extractive and water soluble extractive were also determined. Preliminary phytochemical analysis of ethanol extract was carried out. The results were positive for steroids terpenoids, phenols, tannins and flavonoids. HPTLC analysis confirms the presence of Curcuminoids. These secondary metabolites were the active constituents of Curcuma longa Linn. that may be responsible for its pharmacological activities.