Review on the application of chemometrics for the standardization and authentication of Curcuma xanthorrhiza

Temulawak (Curcuma xanthorrhiza Roxb.) or Javanese turmeric is one of Indonesia'snative medicinal plants and is widely distributed throughout Southeast Asia. Temulawakcontains some bioactive compounds having biological activities. The secondarymetabolites in temulawak vary widely, depending on the environmental conditions whereit grows. Temulawak as a raw material for herbal medicine is often faked with otherrhizomes so that the analytical method capable of detecting the adulteration practice oftemulawak is needed. The standardization of temulawak is a difficult task because thechemical compounds in temulawak are rather complex. In order to overcome the large andcomplex data, chemometrics is needed. The purpose of this paper was to highlight theapplication of chemometrics used during the standardization of temulawak throughfingerprinting profile studies. During the literature searching, several databases namelyScopus, Web of Science, Pubmed and Google scholar were explored to get the relevantarticles using specific keywords related to the topic. Some chemometrics techniques incombination with several instrumental techniques like spectroscopic and chromatographicmethods are successfully used for the characterization and fingerprinting profiling oftemulawak. Based on the data synthesized, chemometrics is powerful technique fortreating the complex data intended for standardization of temulawak.