Chemical characterization of ginger and vinegar soaked ginger: Changes in volatiles and chemical profile

Vinegar soaked ginger (Zingiber officinale Rosc.) as a common dietary adjunct is widely applied in Traditional Chinese Medicine due to its health‐promoting properties, but the difference between vinegar soaked ginger (V‐Ginger) and fresh ginger (F‐Ginger) was rarely studied. In this study, the chemical composition of F‐Ginger oil and V‐Ginger oil was first compared by GC‐MS, and then their ethanol extracts were further analyzed using the UPLC‐QTOF‐MS/MS. The analysis result indicates that the some constituents have changed after processing, such as a small amount of monoterpene generated or some terpene content changes. The antioxidant activity of ginger after vinegar soaked was slightly enhanced, especially the scavenging activity of V‐Ginger oil on hydroxyl radical (·OH). Practical applications Ginger has a history for thousands of years in China as a dietary adjunct food in daily life and is widely used in traditional medicine due to its various health‐promoting properties. Nowadays, there are a group of people who eat shredded ginger soaked in vinegar in dietary. However, the chemical differences between ginger and V‐Ginger have never been reported. Whether V‐Ginger really has good health benefit as Chinese folk says, which requires us to further discuss its material basis and recognizing the mechanism such as its anti‐inflammatory and antibacterial effects, and try to carry out the comparative experiment of antioxidant to provide reference for the application of ginger in dietary health in the future.