A high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with diode array detection (HPLC-DAD) and pressurized liquid extraction was developed for simultaneous quantitative determination of 11 characteristic compounds, including curcumenone, curcumenol, neocurdione, curdione, isocurcumenol, furanodienone, curcumol, germacrone, curzerene, furanodiene and β-elemene, in rhizomes of three species of Curcuma. The analysis was performed on an ODS C18 column. The mobile phase consisted of (A) water and (B) acetonitrile using a gradient elution. The peaks were monitored at both 214 nm and 256 nm. All calibration curves showed good linearity (r2 > 0.9996) within test ranges. This method showed good repeatability for the quantification of these eleven components in three species Curcuma rhizomes with intra- and inter-day variations of less than 1.57% and 1.98%, respectively. The validated method was successfully applied to quantify 11 investigated components in eighteen samples of three species of Curcuma, which is helpful to control their quality. © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.