ABSTRACT. The Zingiber genus, which includes the herbs known as gingers, commonly used in cooking, is well known for its medicinal properties, as described in the Indian pharmacopoeia. Different members of this genus, although somewhat similar in morphology, differ widely in their pharmacological and therapeutic properties. The most important species of this genus, with maximal therapeutic properties, is Zingiber officinale (garden ginger), which is often adulterated with other lesspotent Zingiber sp. There is an existing demand in the herbal drug industry for an authentication system for the Zingiber sp in order to facilitate their commercial use as genuine phytoceuticals. To this end, we used amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) to produce DNA fingerprints for three Zingiber species. Sixteen collections (six of Z. officinale, five of Z. montanum, and five of Z. zerumbet) were used in the study. Seven selective primer pairs were found to be useful for all the accessions. A total of 837 fragments were produced by these primer pairs. Species-specific markers were identified for all three Zingiber species (91 for Z. officinale, 82 for Z. montanum, and 55 for Z. zerumbet). The dendogram analysis generated from AFLP patterns showed that Z. montanum and Z. zerumbet are phylogenetically closer to each other than to Z. officinale. The AFLP fingerprints of the Zingiber species could be AFLP markers for identification of three Zingiber species used to authenticate Zingiber sp-derived drugs and to resolve adulterationrelated problems faced by the commercial users of these herbs.
Hot air drying of ginger (Zingiber Officinale) samples (10 mm × 10 mm × 5 mm) having an initial moisture content of 84.89% (wet basis) were carried out at 60°C. Effect of treatment prior to drying was studied at different concentrations of calcium chloride (CaCl 2 ) of 3, 3.5, 4, and 4.5 Mol per liter and compared with the samples dried without pretreatment. Also, process intermittency was applied with a pulse ratio of 1.5 by keeping the sample in vacuum or open atmosphere. During intermittent drying, the products were dried in hot air dryer for 40 min, followed by either vacuum drying or open-air drying at ambient conditions for 20 min. It was observed that calcium chloride with higher concentrations had a significant effect on the moisture extraction rate. Open-air intermittency exhibited better rehydration ability and lowest shrinkage ratio, which facilitated a higher drying rate during the falling rate period.
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