Zingiberaceae Rhizome Essential Oil: A Review of Chemical Composition, Biological Activity, and Application in Food Industry

Abstract

Several of Zingiberaceae‘s rhizomes are aromatic and medicinal plants that have been used for thousands of years to enhance food’s taste, color, and aroma. The Zingiberaceae plant is found in various ecosystems in Southeast Asia, including cultivation areas and tropical rainforests. It can be found growing at the edge of the forest or well-rooted on the forest floor. This plant is one of the agroforestry product that usually used for cooking, perfume, dyes, and traditional medicine, especially ethnic medicine. Zingiberaceae products can be consumed in various forms, such as fresh, cooked, or boiled..This rhizome is effective in the treatment of several medical conditions such as digestive, respiratory, nervous, and muscle system problems, as well as other degenerative diseases. Phenolic compounds as secondary metabolites found in Zingiberaceae rhizome plants have been shown to have good biological activity for human health and as antibacterials in their applications in food and pharmaceutical products. The main objective of this review is to provide an overview of essential oils from Zingiberaceae rhizome commodities in terms of chemical components, biological activity, safety, and potential applications in the food industry. A number of literature search methods, in this article the narrative literature observation method is used, by searching for related keywords such as essential oils, zingiberaceae, rhizomes, phytochemicals, ginger, turmeric, ginger, Alpinia, in scientific article search engines such as Google Scholar, Scopus, Web search. of Science, and PubMed implemented. This narrative review will help researchers to describe research developments related to essential oils produced from the rhizome commodity of aromatic plants and medicinal plants from the Zingiberaceae family.The common use of rhizome essential oil in food and traditional medicine has attracted researchers worldwide for its application in the food industry. In this review, this topic is discussed in detail along with the results of scientific research supporting the application of essential oils in food and their functional properties, such as the main functional properties of antioxidant, antibacterial and antifungal.