Multi-elemental profiling and chemo-metric validation revealed nutritional qualities of Zingiber officinale

• ICP-MS based elemental profiling of ginger rhizome was chemometrically validated
• Inter relationship study indicated positive correlation among most of the elements.
• Identification of rhizomes with beneficial qualities for therapeutic purposes.
• The study will provide platform for understanding the functional/physiological status of ginger rhizome.
• Raw ginger is a good source of beneficial elements like Mg, Ca, Mn, Fe, Cu and Zn.

Ginger rhizome is a valued food, spice and an important ingredient of traditional systems of medicine of India, China and Japan. An Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) based multi-elemental profiling was performed to assess the quantitative complement of elements, nutritional quality and toxicity of 46 ginger germplasms, collected from the north western Himalayan India. The abundance of eighteen elements quantified in the acid digested rhizomes was observed to be K>Mg>Fe>Ca>Na>Mn>Zn>Ba>Cu>Cr>Ni>Pb>Co>Se>As>Be>Cd. Toxic element, Hg was not detected in any of the investigated samples. Chemometric analyses showed positive correlation among most of the elements. No negative correlation was observed in any of the metals under investigation. UPGMA based clustering analysis of the quantitative data grouped all the 46 samples into three major clusters, displaying 88% similarity in their metal composition, while eighteen metals investigated grouped into two major clusters. Quantitatively, all the elements analyzed were below the permissible limits laid down by World Health Organization. The results were further validated by cluster analysis (CA) and principal component analysis (PCA) to understand the ionome of the ginger rhizome. The study suggested raw ginger to be a good source of beneficial elements/minerals like Mg, Ca, Mn, Fe, Cu and Zn and will provide platform for understanding the functional and physiological status of ginger rhizome.