FTIR spectroscopy and chemometrics for chemotaxonomy of Zingiberaceae species indigenous to Indonesia

• Zingiberaceae family has a broad of pharmacological effects and has a similar morphology. • Chemotaxonomy is one of the approaches to distinguish the species. • FTIR and chemometrics that used metabolomic approach are the application of chemotaxonomy studies. • The technique can be applied to discriminate Zingiberaceae samples from Indonesia. Plants from the Zingiberaceae family are commonly used as raw materials for traditional medicine, cosmetics, and food additives. They are often available on the market in a dried powdered form. Although they have chemically distinct secondary metabolites, identifying and discriminating between species in a powdered form can be challenging due to the high similarity in their morphological and macroscopic appearance. The authentication process is essential to ensure the quality, efficacy, and safety of these products. The aim of our study was to provide chemotaxonomic profiles and to establish interspecies relationships of 12 Indonesian Zingiberaceae rhizome species collected from different geographic regions, based on Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectra combined with chemometrics. FTIR spectroscopy was coupled with multivariate chemometric techniques and used to distinguish the rhizomes of 12 Zingiberaceae members (different species or the same species from varied geographic origins in Indonesia). The chemotaxonomy and interspecies relationships were studied by applying a multivariate chemometric approach to the FTIR spectral data, to ascertain their patterns. Dried powder samples were measured in the mid-infrared region of 4000–550 cm −1 and the data were analyzed using principal component analysis (PCA), cluster analysis (CA) models, and correlogram models. A total of 28 peaks were identified from 12 species, which were successfully discriminated into clusters. It is concluded that chemotaxonomy based on FTIR spectra and chemometric analysis is an effective strategy for the identification, authentication, and discrimination of the dried powder of different Zingiberaceae species.