A dendrogram generated from the statistical analysis performed on the identified compounds (48 components ≥0.5% concentration) of each species is shown in Fig. 1. The essential oil of C. longa, was also included for comparison. The dendrogram consisted of 4 clusters. Cluster I, consisted of 2 groups. Group I contained C. aeruginosa. Group II, C. malabarica and C. rakthakanta; they formed a subgroup with C. sylvatica. C. zedoaria and C. longa formed separate clusters II and III. Cluster IV consisted of C. aromatica, C. brog, and C. caesia. The classification of Curcuma species using RAPD (random amplified polymorphic DNA) analysis of leaf tissues ( Angel et al., 2008) showed strong similarity with the present classification based on constituents in essential oil, indicating the usefulness of essential oil data in chemo taxonomical applications.