Ginger Oil

Origin & story

Ginger is believed to be native to south-eastern Asia and has been grown in India for centuries. India is among the world's largest producers, and its dried ginger reaches the world market under two old names, Cochin ginger and Calicut ginger, valued for a lemony note that some buyers rate highly. In the Western Ghats, Kerala's Cochin belt is regarded as a source of fine ginger, with Karnataka and Tamil Nadu also growing it, while north-eastern states such as Assam, Sikkim and Meghalaya account for a large share of the national crop.

How it’s made

The oil is distilled from dried ginger, not fresh. Cured rhizomes are ground to a coarse powder and steam-distilled, and because the volatile oil sits mainly in the epidermal (skin) cells, growers are advised not to over-scrape during peeling or aroma is lost. Dry ginger typically gives roughly 1.5 to 3 percent volatile oil depending on variety and growing conditions; the IISR-Varada variety, for instance, is rated at about 1.75 percent. The gingerols and shogaols that make ginger hot are non-volatile, so they do not carry into the distilled oil and are instead recovered separately by solvent extraction as oleoresin.

Sourcing & cultivation

Ginger likes a warm, humid climate and grows from the plains up to about 1500 m, under rain or irrigation. It does best on well-drained sandy, clay, red or lateritic loams rich in humus, needing moderate rain at sowing, steady showers through the season and a drier spell before harvest. In South India seed rhizomes go in around April to May and the crop is lifted at about 8 to 10 months when the leaves yellow. Reported green-ginger yields and dry recovery vary with variety and conditions. It is an exhausting crop that should be rotated, and on the west coast it is often grown as a mixed crop under coconut, young coffee and orange; shoot borer and soft (rhizome) rot are the main problems to watch.

Grades & quality

For the oil itself, buyers look first at volatile oil content and the aroma profile: zingiberene is the main sesquiterpene, backed by ar-curcumene, beta-sesquiphellandrene and beta-bisabolene, while the lemony lift comes from citral (neral and geranial), limonene and linalool. On the raw-material side, low-fibre, high-gingerol Cochin-type ginger from Kerala is a preferred feedstock for oil and oleoresin. Colour is a rhizome cue as well, with Cochin ginger running light yellow and Calicut more reddish-brown.

Uses & applications

Ginger oil is used to flavour foods and drinks, including ginger ale and ginger beer, soft drinks, confectionery, bakery and spice blends, where it gives the aroma of ginger without the raw heat of the fresh root. In fragrance it serves as a warm, spicy top-to-heart note in soaps, cosmetics and perfumery, and it is also blended into aromatherapy products. Being aromatic rather than pungent, it suits any application where the smell of ginger is wanted but not the burn.

For buyers & the trade

India is a major producer of ginger and a significant supplier of value-added ginger oil and oleoresin, so many buyers of these products already deal with Indian material. Actual exports of the distilled oil tend to be small in volume but high in unit value, and much of India's crop still moves as dried and fresh ginger rather than as oil. Cochin ginger's reputation for a clean, lemony flavour is a key selling point for South Indian oil, though China, Nigeria and Thailand compete on raw ginger and Australia is strong in value-added products.

Frequently asked