Phylogenetic position of Nigerian species of Curcuma longa (Zingiberaceae) in the Current Infrageneric Classification

Curcuma longa L. (commonly known as Tumeric) is the only species of the genus Curcuma found in Nigeria. It is of great economic importance to Nigeria, Africa, Asia, and other parts of the world, where it is widely used for ornamental and medicinal purposes, and as spices in food and beverages. However, the phylogenetic placement of the turmeric plant (C. longa) in Nigeria is far from being fully resolved, hence the need for this study. The rhizomes of turmeric were collected at the Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria, Ibadan, Oyo state. Genomic DNA was extracted, followed by the amplification of the ITS and psbA-trnH regions. Phylogenetic analysis was conducted using the Maximum likelihood method. The result resolved the phylogenetic position of Nigerian species and supported existing subgenera classification into three clades, all with high bootstrap support for the three clades. The result of this study supports the subgenera classification of the genus and further reveals the phylogenetic position of C. longa. Keywords: Curcuma  longa,  ITS, psbA-trnH, Sanger Sequencing, Zingiberaceae