Characterization of Volatile Organic Compounds in Mango Ginger (<i>Curcuma amada</i> Roxb.) from Myanmar

• Main Authors: Yanhang Chen, Musavvara Kh. Shukurova, Yonathan Asikin, Miyako Kusano, Kazuo N. Watanabe
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-12-01
• Series: Metabolites
• Subjects: <i>Curcuma amada</i>; <i>Curcuma longa</i>; volatile organic compounds; chemical composition; GC-TOF-MS; Myanmar
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2218-1989/11/1/21

<i>Curcuma amada</i> Roxb. (Zingiberaceae), commonly known as mango ginger because its rhizome and foliar parts have a similar aroma to mango. The rhizome has been widely used in food industries and alternative medicines to treat a variety of internal diseases such as cough, bronchitis, indigestion, colic, loss of appetite, hiccups, and constipation. The composition of the volatile constituents in a fresh rhizome of <i>C. amada</i> is not reported in detail. The present study aimed to screen and characterize the composition of volatile organic compound (VOC) in a fresh rhizome of three <i>C. amada</i> (ZO45, ZO89, and ZO114) and one <i>C. longa</i> (ZO138) accessions originated from Myanmar. The analysis was carried out by means of headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) coupled with gas chromatography-time-of-flight-mass spectrometry (GC-TOF-MS). As a result, 122 VOCs were tentatively identified from the extracted 373 mass spectra. The following compounds were the ten most highly abundant and broadly present ones: <i>ar</i>-turmerone, α-zingiberene, α-santalene, (<i>E</i>)-γ-atlantone, cuparene, β-bisabolene, teresantalol, β-sesquiphellandrene, <i>trans</i>-α-bergamotene, γ-curcumene. The intensity of <i>ar-</i>turmerone, the sesquiterpene which is mainly characterized in <i>C. longa</i> essential oil (up to 15.5–27.5%), was significantly higher in <i>C. amada</i> accession ZO89 (15.707 ± 5.78^a) compared to <i>C. longa</i> accession ZO138 (0.300 ± 0.08^b). <i>Cis</i>-α-bergamotene was not detected in two <i>C. amada</i> accessions ZO45 and ZO89. The study revealed between-species variation regarding identified VOCs in the fresh rhizome of <i>C. amada</i> and <i>C. longa</i>.