Plants · Aromatic Spices
Zingiber officinale (ginger): rhizome oil yields, compounds
Zingiber officinale Roscoe
- Family
- Zingiberaceae
- ISO standard
- ISO 16928:2014
Species
| Binomial | Zingiber officinale |
|---|---|
| Accepted name | Zingiber officinale Roscoe |
| WCVP status | accepted |
| Family | Zingiberaceae |
| IPNI identifier | urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:798372-1 |
| ISO standard | ISO 16928:2014 |
Source: Govaerts R. (ed.), World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP), Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, accessed on 21/09/2026.
Source: ISO 16928:2014.
Source: Plants of the World Online (POWO), Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, taxon page « Zingiber officinale Roscoe », archived copy of 20/10/2026 (Internet Archive), accessed on 29/10/2026.
According to the World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP, Kew), in the extract read on 27/10/2026, Zingiber officinale Roscoe is a name of rank “Species” with the status “Accepted”, placed in the family Zingiberaceae (identifier 273361).
This page reports two studies of the rhizome essential oil, each on its own; their figures are neither compared nor averaged.
According to the Plants of the World Online (POWO, Kew) entry for the taxon “Zingiber officinale Roscoe”, the native range of the species is “E. Himalaya to S. Central China”. The same entry describes Zingiber officinale as “a perennial or rhizomatous geophyte” that grows “primarily in the seasonally dry tropical biome”.
How was oil obtained from dried ginger rhizome in Sri Lanka?
According to Jayasundara and Arampath (2021), two varieties of Zingiber officinale roscoe (the authors’ spelling; WCVP name Zingiber officinale Roscoe), “Rangoon” and “Siddha”, were cultivated with a variety named “Chinese” as the control, in experimental plots of two ginger cultivating areas of Sri Lanka that the authors call “potentially important”, at Makandura and Allawwa (spelled “Alawwa” in the conclusion).
The authors give the harvest stages as 5, 7 and 8 months after plantation, and eighteen (3 × 2×3) variety-location-maturity stage combinations were sampled.
In this study, the harvested rhizomes were washed with distilled water, peeled and cut into small pieces (average thickness 5mm, average length 15mm); 40–45kg of wet sample per variety-location-maturity combination was dried in an oven (“air drying (AD) in an oven”) at 50 ± 5 °C until a moisture content of 10–12%.
The authors report that the required moisture was reached after three to four days of drying; the dried sample, around 4–5.5 kg, was packed in a moisture-tight polyethylene container with anhydrous silica gel and kept at 4 °C.
The oil of the dried rhizome was separated by what the authors call “Hydro distillation or steam distillation”, in a modified Clevenger light oil arm apparatus: 100 g of dried ginger were placed in a 1000 ml flat-bottom flask with 500 ml of distilled water, a sample-to-water weight ratio of 1:5 (“10:2 in solvent to feed (SF) ratio”).
According to the authors, the flask was heated with a heating mantle to 70 °C and held at that temperature for 30 min, then the temperature was raised gradually; the distillation, with a tap-water-cooled condenser, lasted 4 h.
In this study, 0.1 g of anhydrous sodium sulphate was added to the collected oil, which was stored at 4 °C; three replicates were collected per variety-location-maturity combination, 54 (3 × 2×3 × 3) in all.
How were the constituents of the dried-rhizome oils measured?
According to Jayasundara and Arampath (2021), 300 μl of essential oil were injected in two splits into a SHIMADZU gas chromatograph with a Carbowax 20M column, with nitrogen as carrier gas at 1 mL/min, and a flame ionization detector (FID) at 300 °C measured the peak intensities.
The authors identified the constituents with internal standards, by matching reference retention indexes from a computer database with the reported KI values, then by comparing retention times and peak patterns with chromatograms of previous research.
What oil yields did the Sri Lankan study report?
According to Jayasundara and Arampath (2021), the weight yield of ginger essential oil was highest at 5 months after planting and lowest at 8 months; it decreased gradually with maturity stage for all the varieties, and this pattern was observed equally in all the variety-location combinations tested.
At the five-month stage, the maximum weight yield, as a percentage of dried sample weight, was 3.36%, recorded by the variety “Rangoon” grown at Makandura.
At 5 months after planting, the lowest oil weight yield (1.61%) was recorded by the variety “Siddha”, also planted at Makandura.
The authors report that the maximum and minimum weight yields dropped by 79.1% and 63.1% respectively on reaching 8 months of maturity, and that all the variety-location combinations showed, on average, a drop of more than 55% in weight yield at 8 months after planting.
According to the authors, the essential oil yields obtained were in the range 1%–3% (w/w): the local variety “Siddha” yielded around 1% on average, while “Rangoon” and the control variety “Chinese” yielded “as high as 3%”.
The interaction plots showed “Rangoon” to be the maximum producer of ginger essential oil when planted at Makandura; at Allawwa, the variety “Siddha” “contributed to the maximum oil weight yield”.
In the authors’ ANOVA on weight yield, the p values were below 0.05 (95% confidence) for the main effects ‘maturity stage’ and ‘location’ of cultivation and for the maturity stage-variety, maturity stage-location and variety-location interactions; the ‘variety’ factor had a p value above 0.05.
Which compounds did the Sri Lankan study report?
According to Jayasundara and Arampath (2021), the chemical peak intensity of ginger essential oil was significantly affected by maturity stage, while the variety factor did not significantly affect it (p > 0.05, 95% confidence interval).
The authors positively identified twenty-five (25) compounds by gas chromatography followed by comparison with a typical ginger essential oil chromatograph; “Siddha” accounted for 13 major compounds and “Rangoon” for 12, these compounds being above 2% in abundance — for both varieties grown at Makandura, at the five-month harvest (Table 1).
In the text, nine compounds identified in “Siddha” (Makandura, 5 months in Table 1) were above 5% in relative abundance: “α-pinene” (7.2%), “camphene” (12.4%), “β-phellandrene” (12.4%), “citronellal” (12.4%), “citral-a” (8.3%), “borneol” (5.2%), “β-sesqui-phellandrene” (10.9%), “β-zingiberene” (5.7%) and “geraniol” (6.7%); Table 1 writes the corresponding rows “α- Pinene”, “β-Phellandrine”, “Citral a”, “β-Sesqui-Phellandrene”, “β- Zingiberene” and “Gereneol”, and neither spelling corrects the other.
In the text, seven compounds identified in “Rangoon” (Makandura, 5 months in Table 1) were also above 5% in abundance: “α-pinene” (8.4%), “camphene” (13.6%), “β-phellandrene” (13.6%), “citral-a” (7.5%), “β-sesqui-phellandrene” (12.2%), “α-zingiberene” (9.7%) and “geraniol” (11.8%); Table 1 writes “α- Pinene”, “β-Phellandrine”, “Citral a”, “β-Sesqui-Phellandrene” and “Gereneol” for the corresponding rows.
Table 1 of Jayasundara and Arampath (2021)
Table 1 gives the relative percentage abundance of each compound for “Siddha” at Makandura (S-M) and “Rangoon” at Makandura (R-M), harvested at 5, 7 and 8 months.
Compound names and values are reproduced as printed in the table; a reference peak number is left out for two rows.
| Compound (as printed in Table 1) | Ref. peak | S-M 5 months | S-M 7 months | S-M 8 months | R-M 5 months | R-M 7 months | R-M 8 months |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| α- Pinene | 2 | 7.2 | 0.7 | 4.1 | 8.4 | 2.5 | 3.3 |
| Camphene | 3 | 12.4 | 3.8 | 15.8 | 13.6 | 9.7 | 12.5 |
| β- Pinene | 4 | 1.0 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 1.2 | 0.7 | 0.7 |
| Myrcene | 7 | 2.6 | 1.7 | 1.1 | 3.6 | 2.9 | 2.9 |
| Lymonene | 8 | 2.3 | 2.3 | 1.4 | 2.9 | 3.0 | 2.9 |
| β-Phellandrine | 9 | 12.4 | 15.6 | 14.0 | 13.6 | 13.6 | 14.2 |
| Terpinolene | 12 | 1.3 | 0.9 | 0.5 | 0.6 | 0.5 | 0.5 |
| Citronellal | — | 12.4 | 0.6 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 |
| Linalool | 16 | 3.1 | 3.0 | 1.6 | 2.1 | 2.5 | 2.5 |
| β- Caryopyllene | 18 | 1.3 | 1.5 | 0.7 | 0.8 | 0.3 | 0.6 |
| Citral a | 22 | 8.3 | 13.9 | 6.7 | 7.5 | 11.8 | 12.6 |
| α- Terpineole | 23 | 4.1 | 6.5 | 2.7 | 2.9 | 3.8 | 3.8 |
| Borneol | — | 5.2 | 8.1 | 4.3 | 2.6 | 3.9 | 4.3 |
| Guainene | 26 | 0.0 | 15.6 | 9.0 | 1.0 | 13.6 | 2.6 |
| α-Zingiberene | 27 | 0.0 | 0.6 | 1.6 | 9.7 | 10.7 | 14.2 |
| β-Sesqui-Phellandrene | 30 | 10.9 | 4.1 | 2.3 | 12.2 | 2.6 | 6.9 |
| β- Zingiberene | 32 | 5.7 | 3.4 | 1.8 | 1.0 | 2.2 | 1.8 |
| Gereneol | 36 | 6.7 | 6.2 | 3.4 | 11.8 | 12.0 | 10.1 |
| Methyl-iso-Eugenol | 37 | 0.5 | 2.2 | 0.0 | 0.6 | 1.0 | 0.7 |
| α-Nerolidol | 38 | 0.8 | 1.3 | 15.8 | 1.3 | 0.9 | 1.2 |
| Elemol | 39 | 0.3 | 1.5 | 7.4 | 0.6 | 0.8 | 0.6 |
| Cedrol | 40 | 0.4 | 1.8 | 1.4 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.4 |
| Eugenol | 42 | 0.3 | 1.3 | 1.3 | 0.6 | 0.8 | 0.4 |
| β-Eudesmol | 44 | 0.4 | 1.8 | 1.4 | 0.6 | 0.2 | 0.2 |
| Farnesal | 45 | 0.4 | 1.4 | 1.1 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 0.4 |
How was oil obtained from fresh “Bentong” ginger rhizome in Malaysia?
According to Gunasena et al. (2022), § 4.1, the fresh ginger rhizome — written “Z. officinalae cv. Bentong” in § 4.1 and “Zingiber officinale Roscoe cv. Bentong” in the title; WCVP name Zingiber officinale Roscoe — was obtained from a commercial ginger farm in Bentong, Pahang, Malaysia (voucher KM0006/22).
According to the same section, the essential oil of the fresh rhizomes was extracted by hydrodistillation in a Clevenger-type apparatus: the rhizomes were cleaned with water, cut into slices, crushed into small particles with a blender, and mixed with distilled water in a 3:5 ratio in the 10 L flask.
In § 2.1, the authors determined the extraction yield by dividing the amount of extracted oil by the amount of fresh material fed into the extractor, estimated from several cycles; the yield of ginger essential oil (GEO) was between 1.2–1.5% (v/w).
Which compounds did the Malaysian study report?
According to Gunasena et al. (2022), § 4.2, the oil was analysed by GC–MS (a gas chromatograph interfaced with a mass spectrometer), the oven being first set at 50 °C (isothermal for 3 min) with a 10 °C/min increase, then raised to 250 °C for 10 min and finally to 300 °C for 10 min isothermal; the constituents were identified by matching retention times, retention index and mass spectral data from FFNSC1.3.lib, NIST11.lib and WILEY229.LIB, as well as with the available literature.
In § 2.1, the gas chromatography analysis identified 45 peaks in the ginger essential oil (GEO).
The text of § 2.1 states that the GEO contained a high percentage of monoterpenes (74.6 %) and sesquiterpenes (20.73%).
Table 1 of Gunasena et al. (2022)
Table 1 gives, for each peak, the retention time (“Rt (min)”), the retention index measured in this work (“RI (This Work)”) and the area (“Area (%)”) in the ginger essential oil (GEO).
Compound names are reproduced as printed in the table.
| Peak | Compound (as printed in Table 1) | Rt (min) | RI (This Work) | Area (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Heptan-2-ol | 8.074 | 900 | 1.23 |
| 2 | α-Pinene | 9.386 | 933 | 2.76 |
| 3 | Camphene | 10.087 | 951 | 7.53 |
| 4 | β-Pinene | 11.173 | 978 | 0.52 |
| 5 | 6-Methyl-5-hepten-2-one | 11.344 | 983 | 0.95 |
| 6 | Myrcene | 11.588 | 989 | 2.31 |
| 7 | Sulcatol | 11.706 | 992 | 0.25 |
| 8 | α- Phellandrene | 12.370 | 1007 | 0.30 |
| 9 | 1,8-Cineole | 13.646 | 1034 | 14.96 |
| 10 | Terpinolene | 16.074 | 1086 | 0.47 |
| 11 | Methyl lavender ketone | 16.220 | 1089 | 0.44 |
| 12 | β-Linalool | 16.705 | 1100 | 2.19 |
| 13 | Camphor | 19.081 | 1149 | 0.26 |
| 14 | Citronellal | 19.224 | 1152 | 0.95 |
| 15 | Isoneral | 19.667 | 1161 | 0.22 |
| 16 | Endo-Borneol | 20.349 | 1175 | 1.70 |
| 17 | Isogeranial | 20.581 | 1179 | 0.34 |
| 18 | 4-Terpineol | 20.719 | 1182 | 0.39 |
| 19 | Cryptone | 21.021 | 1188 | 0.19 |
| 20 | α -Terpineol | 21.442 | 1197 | 1.77 |
| 21 | Citronellol | 23.055 | 1231 | 3.27 |
| 22 | Neral | 23.666 | 1244 | 13.99 |
| 23 | Geraniol | 24.170 | 1254 | 2.35 |
| 24 | Geranial | 25.146 | 1274 | 17.88 |
| 25 | 2-Undecanone | 26.014 | 1293 | 0.90 |
| 26 | Methyl nonyl carbinol | 26.466 | 1302 | 0.20 |
| 27 | Citronellyl acetate | 28.595 | 1348 | 0.31 |
| 28 | Geranyl acetate | 29.911 | 1377 | 0.63 |
| 29 | β-Elemene | 30.585 | 1392 | 0.51 |
| 30 | Caryophyllene | 32.007 | 1424 | 0.37 |
| 31 | Curcumene | 34.588 | 1483 | 1.58 |
| 32 | Germacrene | 34.698 | 1485 | 0.67 |
| 33 | α-Zingiberene | 35.247 | 1498 | 5.19 |
| 34 | α-Farnesene | 35.551 | 1505 | 3.51 |
| 35 | β-Bisabolene | 35.766 | 1510 | 1.16 |
| 36 | β-Sesquiphellandrene | 36.460 | 1527 | 2.40 |
| 37 | Muurola-4,10(14)-dien-1.beta.-ol | 37.348 | 1548 | 0.23 |
| 38 | α-Elemol | 37.494 | 1552 | 0.89 |
| 39 | Nerolidiol | 37.882 | 1561 | 0.65 |
| 40 | Sesquisabinene hydrate | 39.174 | 1592 | 0.34 |
| 41 | Zingiberenol | 40.152 | 1617 | 0.68 |
| 42 | trans-Sesquisabinene hydrate | 40.830 | 1634 | 0.49 |
| 43 | Globulol | 40.956 | 1637 | 0.51 |
| 44 | Rosifoliol | 41.911 | 1661 | 0.89 |
| 45 | Shyobunol | 43.007 | 1689 | 0.66 |
What does the ISO catalogue record for ISO 16928:2014 say?
The standard ISO 16928:2014 is titled “Essential oil of ginger [Zingiber officinale Roscoe]”; in the ISO catalogue, as of 04/06/2026, it is at the stage “International Standard confirmed [90.93]”. According to the abstract of its ISO catalogue entry, as of 04/06/2026, ISO 16928:2014 “specifies certain characteristics of the essential oil of ginger (Zingiber officinale Roscoe) cultivated in China, India and West Africa, in order to facilitate assessment of its quality”.
Which ISO standards on the ginger spice and its oleoresins does the ISO catalogue list under ICS class 67.220.10?
The first three standards below are standards of ginger as a spice, the fourth covers ginger and its oleoresins; none of their titles names the essential oil. In the ISO catalogue for ICS class 67.220.10, as of 03/11/2025, ISO 1003:1980 is titled “Spices and condiments — Ginger, whole, in pieces, or ground — Specification”, is marked “[Withdrawn]”, is at stage 95.99 and falls under ISO/TC 34/SC 7. In the same catalogue, ISO 1003:2008 is titled “Spices — Ginger (Zingiber officinale Roscoe) — Specification”, is marked “[Withdrawn]”, is at stage 95.99 and falls under ISO/TC 34/SC 7. In the same catalogue, ISO 1003:2025 is titled “Spices and condiments — Whole/pieces and ground dried ginger (Zingiber officinale Roscoe) — Specification”, is at stage 60.60 and falls under ISO/TC 34/SC 7. In the same catalogue, ISO 13685:1997 is titled “Ginger and its oleoresins — Determination of the main pungent components (gingerols and shogaols) — Method using high-performance liquid chromatography”, is at stage 90.93 and falls under ISO/TC 34/SC 7.
References
- Govaerts R. (ed.), World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP), Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew — https://sftp.kew.org/pub/data-repositories/WCVP/wcvp.zip
- Jayasundara N.D.B., Arampath P., « Effect of variety, location & maturity stage at harvesting, on essential oil chemical composition, and weight yield of Zingiber officinale roscoe grown in Sri Lanka », Heliyon 2021;7(3):e06560, doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e06560 — https://www.ebi.ac.uk/europepmc/webservices/rest/PMC8022136/fullTextXML
- Gunasena M.T., Rafi A., Mohd Zobir S.A., Hussein M.Z., Ali A., Kutawa A.B., Abdul Wahab M.A., Sulaiman M.R., Adzmi F., Ahmad K., « Phytochemicals Profiling, Antimicrobial Activity and Mechanism of Action of Essential Oil Extracted from Ginger (Zingiber officinale Roscoe cv. Bentong) against Burkholderia glumae Causative Agent of Bacterial Panicle Blight Disease of Rice », Plants 2022;11(11):1466, doi:10.3390/plants11111466 — https://www.ebi.ac.uk/europepmc/webservices/rest/PMC9182640/fullTextXML
- International Organization for Standardization (ISO), catalogue record « ISO 16928:2014 — Essential oil of ginger [Zingiber officinale Roscoe] », edition 1, 2014-04, archived copy of 04/06/2026 (Internet Archive) — https://web.archive.org/web/20260604110020id_/https://www.iso.org/standard/57978.html
- International Organization for Standardization (ISO), online catalogue, ICS 67.220.10 « Spices and condiments », archived copy of 03/11/2025 (Internet Archive) — https://web.archive.org/web/20251103183435id_/https://www.iso.org/ics/67.220.10/x/
- Plants of the World Online (POWO), Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, taxon page « Zingiber officinale Roscoe », archived copy of 20/10/2026 (Internet Archive) — https://web.archive.org/web/20261020174416id_/https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:798372-1