Effects of Composts on the Growth, Yield and Effective Components of Turmeric (Curcuma longa L.)

Curcuma longa L. (turmeric) is an important medicinal plant that has been historically used in herbal medicine and in the health food throughout Asia etc. Recently, the demands on rhizome of turmeric are increasing greatly by well-being boom, but there is not enough to meet the demands. To fulfill increasing demands, cultivation system strategies using the organic fertilizers are required to produce a greater amount of rhizome with good quality and yield. A field experiment was conducted to determine the effect of composts, NPK fertilizer(control, F), NPK + swine manure(SM) and NPK + fermentation manure from the wasted oriental medicine materials(OMWM), on rhizome yield and the content of bioactive components for quality. Our results showed that two compost applications can increase both rhizomes(24.1-25.9%) and curcumin(21.7-41.0%) yields, respectively, compared to F control. The content of amino acids increased significantly by SM and OMWM treatments. SM and OMWM application also increased the total phenol yields 7.8 and 8.7 g/10a compared with control 6.3 g/10a, the flavonoid yields 6.3 and 7.3 g/10a compared with control 5.3 g/10a, and also antioxidant activity 21.7 and 41%, respectively, as compared to the control. Especially, OMWM was more effective in total rhizomes yields and bioactivities and in the biosynthesis of curcumin and bioactive components than SM treatments, but the biological pathway was not clear, still. This experiment suggests that curcumin or bioactive components affected by adding SM and OMWM could increase the yields and quality of turmeric.