Ginger Essential Oil, Indonesia

Ginger Essential oil

Ginger essential oil, distilled from the rhizomesof ogranically grown plant material in Indonesia. Ginger has a warming aspect, and is well received in both perfumery an aromatherapy. It's also good in flavors.

Product Information

Zingziber officinalis

Zingiberaceae family

Grown in Indonesia and distilled from fresh rhizomes.

Ginger is warming and wonderful! Most ginger oil one sees is from dried rhizomes and do not impart much warmth/pungency, being more strict in its perfumery applications. Our oil is from fresh rhizomes, and so there is a definite pungent aspect.

Ginger is native to India and China—and is still used daily for all manner of digestive upsets, as an analgesic, a stimulant for the heart as well as a tonic for the immune system…..We used to rub fresh ginger rhizome on our cut feet to disinfect them in Goa…Of course ginger also has a long history as a spice and was taken to Europe and the Americas by the Spanish. The name “ginger” comes from the Tamil “ingiver.”

The distillation method used is usually a combination of water and steam distillation and the rhizones are usually, but obviously not always, dried. The skin is left on for distillation, as, according to Arctander, the essential oils are located just below the epidermis, so they will be lost if the skin is taken, or turned into chaos.

One can postulate, again from Arctander, that the reason ginger has usually been dried before distillation, has to do with the extremely high water content in fresh rhizomes, around 70%, whereas in dried ginger the water content is under 20%. As Perfume and Flavor Materials of Natural Origin was published in 1960, obviously the world has changed a lot. At the time of writing, virtually all ginger was sent to the USA and Europe for distillation. It’s a question not only of the higher costs associated with higher weight, but also the degradation of the oil in a wet environment. Now we see on-site distillation everywhere in the world.  Most of us can relate to this high water content thing, though, when we buy ginger and don’t use it fast enough, it withers or turns to mold. (If this happens to you, try keeping it in the freezer, in one piece. It’s perfect, and only needs a few minutes room temp before you grate what you need and throw the rest back in the freezer. And you can keep doing that. It’s a “grate” way to keep your ginger fresh for cooking!)

ginger bread cookie

a delicious bit

the flavor of ginger bread

at Christmas

by Charles Henderson

Arctander says

Ginger oil is a pale yellow to light amber colored mobile liquid. Its viscosity increases upon age or exposure to air. The odor is warm, but fresh-woody, spicy and with a peculiar resemblance to orange, lemon, lemongrass, cilantro, etc in the initial topnotes. The sweet and heavy undertone is tenacious, sweet and rich, almost balsamic-floral. Ginger is used in perfumery to introduce warmth and certain nuances of spicy sweetness. In flavors, he notes interesting effects in strawberry, pineapple and peppermint, and also baked goods of course. I would add black pepper and allspice to that. Let’s not forget ginger ale and ginger beer. And gingersnaps and gingerbread.

Battaglia says

There are tons of clinical studies involving ginger in every other form but essential oil. But he is talking mainly about the oil from dried rhizomes, without the warming actions, so we can’t say how much our oil would have these actions. However, the actions, commonly cited in aromatherapy include

Analgesic

Carminative

Expectorant

Febrifuge

Rubefacient

Stimulant

Stomachic

Sudorific

Tonic.

I highly recommend perusing Sal Battaglia’s book The Complete Guide to Aromatherapy, where there is just a ton of great information.