Presence of biogenic and intrinsically derived organic solvents in Ginger rhizome oil: A specific reference to supercritical fluid extract of ginger

The importance of clean and solvent-free pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals and other allied healthcare (food) products are continuously increasing towards meeting the challenges posed by International regulatory and consumer requirements. The issue of residual solvents in healthcare products is well known requiring consideration, and currently, nutraceutical products derived from medicinal and aromatic plants are of great significance. In this study, specific issues and ambiguities associated with the intrinsically present organic solvents, and, related small molecule constituents in Ginger rhizome oil by supercritical fluid extraction of ginger samples have been investigated. Based on the analysis of the data presented in this study and in combination with the available literature, it is concluded that aromatic plants like Ginger rhizome would tend to contain a varied range of organic solvents like alcohols, esters, aliphatic oxides (ethers) and carbonyls (ketones) in its essential oil or crude extracts. An analysis of the biogenic pathway for the formation of the solvents and other small molecule constituents needs further investigation.