THE PRODUCT AND ITS STORY
The spice (and essential oil) is obtained from the rhizome of the Zingiber officinale plant, a herbaceous monocotyledon of the rainforest, belonging to the Zingiberaceae, perhaps originally from India, about one meter tall, with long, narrow leaves and flowers collected in spike inflorescences. It has been cultivated in India and China since ancient times, and is unknown in its wild state. Widely cultivated in Southeast Asia, tropical Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean and Australia. It was the first oriental spice to arrive in Europe, brought by Arab merchants for the Greek and Roman markets.
Apparently the EO is a pale yellow to yellow mobile liquid, with a typical and persistent aroma of ginger, with fresh and citrus top notes (with a particular resemblance to orange, lemon, coriander seeds, etc.) missing in the dried rhizome oil, mainly due to the citral content, and a warmer, woodier and spicier aspect that emerges after a few minutes, due to the sesquiterpene component. The final note is tenacious, sweet and rich, almost balsamic-floral. Aging (or excessive exposure to air) changes the color towards amber and increases viscosity (resinification)
CHEMICAL COMPOSITION
The oil is dominated by zingiberene (22-37%), beta-phellandrene (15%), beta-sesquiphellandrene (4-10%), alpha-farnesene (5-10%) geraniale (7%) and neral (5 %). The pungent principles of ginger (the polyphenols gingerols, gingeridiones and shogaols) are not volatile.
HOW AND WHEN TO USE IT
In cosmetics it is used to give "warmth" and sweet spicy nuances to heavy oriental bases and in some floral fragrances. Combines well with: rose, cedarwood, coriander, coumarins, citrus, eugenol, ionones, nerol, etc. The oils from fresh rhizomes have a great dominance of citral (neral and geranial) which gives the product an appearance of great freshness. Fresh oil mixes well with sweet orange oil, lime oil, bergamot oil, etc. Average permitted dose in cosmetic creams = 0.1%. Average dose allowed in perfumes = 0.8%
Widely used as a food flavoring in the preparation of desserts and ice creams, alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, sweets, or instead of fresh ginger in oriental recipes. For any food preparation, it is strongly recommended to dilute the essential oil before using it, to concentrations of 0.3-0.6%.
CAUTIONS
None known