Curcuma longa (turmeric) is a plant that has been extensively utilized in
traditional medicine for centuries. Turmeric has a long history of use in both food and
traditional medicine for the treatment of ailments such as
diarrhea,
cancer,
flatulence, and
dyspepsia. In Palestine, this plant was cultivated for the first time. The objective of this study was to characterize the extract of C. longa and assess its antimutagenic activity against a variety of
cancer cells. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) methods were employed to identify the constituents of turmeric. The cytotoxic effects of C. longa were evaluated on
cancer and normal cell lines using the
3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-5-(3-carboxymethoxyphenyl)-2-(4-sulfophenyl)-2H-tetrazolium assay. The results revealed the presence of 10 components in
turmeric extract as identified by GC-MS. The major constituents comprising 78% of the total constituents were α-
zingiberene (27.51%), tumeron (19.44%), β-sesquiphellandrene (19.40%), and aromatic-tumeron (11.63%). HPLC analysis successfully separated the main constituent,
curcumin (1.78%), along with two other
curcumin derivatives. The cytotoxicity results demonstrated potent anticancer activity of the C. longa extract against HeLa and LX2 cell lines, with IC50 values of 46.84 ± 2.12 and 29.77 ± 1 µg/mL, respectively. Furthermore, the
plant extract at a concentration of 250 µg/mL exhibited over 95% inhibition against all tested
cancer cell lines. These findings highlight the promising potential of turmeric as a natural source with powerful anticancer activities. Moreover, the extract may possess other biological activities such as
antioxidant and antimicrobial properties, which could be explored in future studies.