Characterization of Aroma Volatiles in Xilin Fire Ginger Oils by HS-SPME-GC-MS

Ginger is widely used as either a food product or a herbal medicine around the globe. In the current study, we used headspace solid-phase microextraction and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry technology (HS-SPME-GC-MS) with n-butyl acetate as an internal standard to characterize three kinds of ginger oil in Xilin fire ginger, which included ginger essential oil (GEO), ginger oleoresin extracted with petroleum ether (PEGO) and ginger oleoresin extracted with absolute ethanol (AEGO). Cluster analysis of heatmap was used to reveal the differences in concentration in these oils. Odor activity value, in combination with principal component analysis, was further used to analyze the contribution to the aroma. This study demonstrated that despite the similarities in the aroma compounds and content of three kinds of ginger oil, GEO exhibited a better aroma quality, followed by AEGO and PEGO.