The study aims at nutritional evaluation of ginger grown in different agroclimatic zones of Sirmour and Solan districts of Himachal Pradesh. The data revealed that wide variability in respect to phenols, antioxidant activity and ash was evidenced. Wide variation was observed in phenol content of ginger procured from different locations. High phenol content was found in cv Himgiri (7.09±0.25 mg/100 g) of ginger procured from university farm followed by Pandah (6.5±0.21 mg/100 g) while low phenols were found in ginger procured from Dharja area (3.20±0.13 mg/100 g) of Solan district. The ginger rhizomes contained appreciable amounts of antioxidant activity (%) where the maximum (74.57±0.42%) was found in Nauradhar (Sirmour) and Dharja (Solan) area while comparatively less antioxidant activity (27.11±0.22%) was found in ginger rhizomes of Nahan (Sirmour) area. Among the different methods use of mechanical peeler and polisher procured from Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture and Technology, Udaipur was found optimum in terms of minimum peeling losses, ease in handling, cost affectivity and efficiency of operation.
Ginger, land races, nutritional composition, peeling methods
