Although both turmeric rhizome oil and oleoresin have been items of commerce for many years, more recently Indian turmeric leaf oil has also become an item of commerce. According to Chempakam and Parthasarathy (2008), the area under turmeric cultivation is more than 150,000 hectares. Also, like many spice plants, numerous cultivars of turmeric have both been selected and developed.
Fresh leaves of C. longa were collected from IleIfe (Nigeria), cut into small pieces and hydrodistilled for 3 hr to yield a 0.5% oil. Analysis of this oil by GC/MS, HNMR and CNMR revealed that the main constituents were as follows:
