NUTRITIONAL COMPOSITION AND FUNCTIONAL GROUPS PROFILE OF GINGER RHIZOME: A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON GINGER FROM VARIOUS ORIGINS GROWN IN PAKISTAN

Abstract Ginger (Zingiber officinale) belongs to the Zingiberaceae family of flowering plants, which originated in South-East Asia and has long been a popular culinary ingredient. The study was carried out to investigate the nutritional composition and functional group profile of ginger rhizome in different varieties of ginger grown in Pakistan. Samples of four varieties each originated from Thailand, Turkey, China and India, collected from Ayub Agricultural Research Institute Faisalabad, were dried and subjected to proximate, mineral, functional group and colour analyses. Moisture, ash, crude fat, protein, crude fiber and nitrogen free extract (NFE) were found to range between 6.03-8.41%; 4.43-6.63%; 4.07-7.08%; 5.80-9.46%; 5.14-6.37% and 64.87-69.39%, respectively. Calcium, magnesium, zinc and copper in the ginger varieties ranged between 145.42-172.67 mg/100 g, 412.75-595.92 mg/ 100 g, 1.64-3.62 mg/100 g and 0.82-4.19 mg/100 g, respectively. Fourior Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) spectra of ginger powders have strongly evidenced the presence of -OH (alcoholic group) and benzene rings (phenolic groups) with more phenolic compounds depicted in Thailand originated variety. Colour lightness range of the four ginger varieties were; L*: 25.47-58.51; a*: 5.06-7.21; b*: 15.21-23.27.