A look into one of the world’s hottest ginger cultivar

Abstract

Ginger as a raw material has varied uses in the cosmetics, perfumery, oleoresin, medicine, food and feed industries. The degree of pungency (or ‘heat’) in chillies (fruits of several species of Capsicum) is well studied across the globe. However, there are only a few reports on the evaluation of the degree of pungency in case of traditionally cultivated ginger cultivars. In this article we review the pungency of different cultivars of Zingiber officinale Rosc. across the world, based on the gingerol content of the rhizomes. Specific focus is on the ginger cultivar Moran, native to the state of Assam in NE India which is a highly pungent traditionally cultivated variety of ginger.