Development and Validation of a Real-Time PCR Based Assay to Detect Adulteration with Corn in Commercial Turmeric Powder Products.

ABSTRACT: Turmeric, or Curcuma longa, is commonly consumed in the South East Asian countries as a medical product and as food due to its therapeutic properties. However, with increasing demand for turmeric powder, adulterated turmeric powders mixed with other cheap starch powders, such as from corn or cassava, are being distributed by food suppliers for economic benefit. Here, we developed molecular markers using quantitative real-time PCR to identify adulteration in commercial turmeric powder products. Chloroplast genes, such as matK, atpF, and ycf2, were used to design species-specific primers for C. longa and Zea mays. Of the six primer pairs designed and tested, the correlation coefficients (R²) were higher than 0.99 and slopes were -3.136 to -3.498.

SUBMITTER: Oh SH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7404567 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature