Study of Anti-oxidant, Anti-inflammatory, Genotoxicity, Antimicrobial Activities and Analysis of Different Constituents found in Rhizome Essential Oil of Curcuma caesia Roxb., Collected from North East India.

This investigation was designed to evaluate the chemical composition, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, genotoxicity, antimicrobial activities of Curcuma caesia Roxb rhizome essential oil.Gas chromatography/mass spectroscopy (GC/MS) analysis was performed to determine the chemical composition, standard antioxidative test DPPH assay, reducing power assay, in-vitro anti-inflammatory activity (egg albumin denaturation, protease inhibitory assay) were also tested by using standard methods. Similarly, antimicrobial activity was tested using disc diffusion method, minimum inhibitory concentration ability (MIC); while to test genotoxicity, Allium cepa assay was used.GC/MS analysis revealed eucalyptol (28.55%), epicurzerenone (19.62%), camphor (21.73%) as the major components of C. caesia rhizome essential oil. Potent antioxidant (IC50= 48.08±0.003 µg/mL), anti-inflammatory (IC50= 121.7±0.0013 µg/mL), and antimicrobial activities of the essential oil were recorded better than the standard drugs Flucanazole for fungus and Ciprofloxacin for bacteria. The essential oil also possesses strong antibacterial effect against two tested bacterial strains B. subtilis and B. cereus with 7.5 µg/mL MIC value, while for fungal strains the essential oil was most effective against S. cereviaceae with an MIC value of 2.5 µg/mL. All the data were recorded in triplicates. Allium cepa assay revealed minor genotoxicity with mitotic index, MI= 27.70%; chromosome aberration, A= 1.1% of C. caesia rhizome essential oil.C. caesia rhizome essential oil possesses potent antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-microbial properties with negligible genotoxicity effects. Hence, the present study is highly significant for utilization of rhizome of C. caesia, a high value ethnopharmocological plant for advanced R & D and commercial application.