Taxonomy
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Liliopsida
Subclass: Zingiberidae
Order: Zingiberales
Family: Zingiberaceae
Genre: Curcuma
Species: Curcuma longa

Turmeric is a perennial herbaceous plant, which reaches a height of up to 1 meter. With very branched rhizomes, yellow to orange, cylindrical and aromatic. The leaves are arranged in two rows. They are divided into leaf sheath, petiole and leaf blade.1 From the pods, a false stem forms. The petiole is 50 to 115 cm long. The simple leaf blades are usually 76 to 115 cm long but rarely can reach up to 230 cm. They have a width of 38 to 45 cm and are oblong up to the elliptical narrowing at the apex.

The hermaphrodite flowers are zygomorphic and triple. The three sepals, 0.8 to 1.2 centimeters long, are fused, are white, have soft hairs and the three teeth of the chalices are unequal. The three bright yellow petals merge into a tube-shaped corolla up to 3 centimeters long. The three lobes of the corolla have a length of 1 to 1.5 cm, triangular and with the upper end softly spiny, although the middle lobe is larger than the two lateral ones. Only the median stamen of the inner circle is fertile. The dust bag is driven at its base. All other stamens become staminodes. The outer staminodes are shorter than the labellum, which presents a yellowish color with a yellow band at its center and obovate, with a length of 1.2 to 2 cm. The fruit, in the form of a capsule, opens with three compartments

Distribution and habitat

It is adapted to warm humid areas. It can be found from Polynesia and Micronesia to Southeast Asia. It needs temperatures between 20 and 30 ° C and considerable rainfall to thrive.3 Sangli, a city in southern India, is one of the largest producers of this plant. It is cultivated by its rhizomes, which are used as spice

Properties

The extract of this plant is used as a food coloring in two ways: as turmeric (raw extract), cataloged with the European Union food code as E-100ii, it shows a yellow color and is extracted from the root of the plant; and as curcumin (purified or refined state); both states generally referred to as turmeric.

Turmeric is one of the ingredients of curry in Indian cuisine and provides a characteristic deep yellow color, from the root of the plant - this yellow is equally intense regardless of whether the plant is used fresh or dried. It is very unstable in the presence of light but its stability can be improved by adding citrus juices.

Rhizome.
The most important chemical components of turmeric are a group of compounds called curcuminoids, which include curcumin (diferuloylmethane), demethoxyurcumin and bisdemethoxyurcumin. The best studied compound is curcumin, which constitutes 3.14% (on average) of turmeric powder.4 In addition there are other important volatile oils such as turmerone, atlantone and zingiberene. Some general constituents are sugars, proteins and resins.