Metabolite Profiling of Ginger (Zingiber officinale Roscoe) Using GC-MS and Multivariate Statistical Analysis

Ginger (Zingiber officinale Roscoe) is a perennial plant belonging to the family Zingiberaceae, and its rhizomes have been widely used as a spice, a flavoring agent, and a medicinal plant since ancient times.There are many cultivars of ginger around the world, so discrimination between and characterization of different ginger cultivars are essential for the effective use of ginger.In this study, metabolite profiling of eight samples of ginger from Indonesia and Japan was carried out using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and multivariate statistical analysis.The results of principal component analysis (PCA) showed clear differences in composition between the ginger cultivars.It was clarified that oxygenated sesquiterpenes were detected at higher levels in ginger from Indonesia, whereas sesquiterpenes were more abundant in ginger native to Japan.In addition, a heatmap obtained based on the results of hierarchical cluster analysis showed that ginger was clustered according to the properties of each cultivar.These results are helpful for understanding the different traditional uses of ginger.Metabolite profiling using GC-MS coupled with multivariate analysis is an effective way to evaluate the overall chemical differences between the different kinds of ginger.