Ginger content

Choksi. Effect of ginger and garlic on DNA content of gastric aspirate. Indian J Med Res 1990 92 139-141. 

Jamaica ginger is light in colour. The odour is aromatic, agreeable, pungent and spicy. The taste is aromatic, pungent, and with a volatile oil content of 1.0% vol/wt. 

African ginger, primarily from Sierra Leone, is mainly used in meat-seasonings and has an average volatile oil content of 1.6%. 

Ginger beer, shandy, lager and lime, cider shandy, ram and cola and also apple drinks with a cider content of 5-10% have also been produced in low-alcohol versions but are now no longer marketed. 

The crude fibre content of unpeeled ginger may be as high as 10% (on a dry weight basis), but in commercial dried gingers it is usually in the range of 1.5-6%. The volatile oil content of commercial dried gingers has been reported to be 0.5-4.4% but, for the major types, the range is usually 1-3%. 

John and Ferreira (1997), in their study in South Africa, found a ginger selection G9 with high crude fibre content of 6.8% on a dry basis, along with 3.06% oleoresin and 0.52% oil and selection G10, with dry ginger recovery of 27.5%. 

Ginger oil displays considerable compositional diversity but is typically characterized by a high content of sesquiterpene hydrocarbons, including zingiberene, ar-curcumene, (3-bisabolene and (S-sesquiphellandrene. 

Ratnambal etal. (1987) carried out a quality evaluation of ginger in relation to maturity. Quality parameters such as essential oil, oleoresin, gingerol, starch, protein and fibre contents were determined for 14 cultivars at 150, 180, 210 and 240 (full maturity) days after planting. Although the percentage contents of essential oils and oleoresin decreased with increasing maturity, the final yields/ha of these two quality components were at maximum at full maturity. 

Although several workers have monitored the changes in the volatile oil content of fresh ginger as the rhizome matures, there are not many reports of similar studies concerned with the possible changes in oil composition during maturation. 

Oleoresin and gingerol contents in y-irradiated dried ginger rhizomes were evaluated to determine the effect of radiation and storage on these constituents. Both whole and ground samples of dried rhizomes were irradiated (with 0, 5 or lOkGy doses ofy-rays from a 60 Co source) in sealed polyethylene... 

Onyenekwe, P.C. (2000) Assessment of oleoresin and gingerol contents in y irradiated ginger rhizomes. Nahrung 44(2), 130-132. 

Wohlmuth, H., Leach, D.N., Smith, M.K. and Myers, S.P. (2005) Cingerol content of diploid and tetraploid clones of ginger (Zingiber officinale Rosco e). Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 53(14), 5772-5778. 

Ginger from Jamaica is considered to possess the finest quality. The one from West Africa is mostly unpeeled and very sharp, with the highest essential oil content. As the oil possesses a camphor note, it is considered to be of inferior quality. Malabar ginger is mostly peeled and, like the quality from Australia, possesses a pronounced citruslike taste and odour. 

These values showed that there are significant variation in the essential oil and oleoresin content, showing that the Malagasy ginger contained the lowest levels of oleoresins, but higher amounts of essential oils as compared with the Chinese and Indian gingers. 

TablelV. Gingerols and shogoals content of ginger (Zingiber officinale) rbizomes from China, India, Indonesia and Madagascar.

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