Nutritive value of rhizome of the ginger resembling Alpinia allughas Rosc. and characteristics of various extracted materials from the rhizome

Natural Products Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, Gurukula Kangri University. Hardwar-249 404,

Uttarakhand, India

E-mail : akindrayan@yahoo.co.in

Manuscript received 11 August 2010, revised 05 May 2011, accepted 17 August 2011

Looking to the important medicinal value of the rhizome of Alpinia allughas Rose., the nutritive value of the rhizome is determined. Rhizome is rich in carbohydrate (71.7%) and has enough protein and crude fibre (9.6 and 9.1% respectively); nutritive value being 333.5 Cal/100 g, Rhizome is rich in calcium (856 ppm) and sufficient in sodium and magnesium (77 and 50.5 ppm respectively). Other biologically important metals Cu, Ni, Mn, Fe, Zn and K are also in suitable amounts. Cr seems to be higher than required (30 ppm). The extractions of useful materials separately through solvents of decreasing polarities, viz. water, ethanol, diethyl ether and petroleum ether are carried out from its rhizome. The water extract has maximum yield. Odours vary in differently extracted materials. Petroleum ether extracted material shows a sufficient degree of unsaturation. All of the solvent extracted materials are dextro rotatory. Specific gravities, refractive indices, acid, saponification and iodine values of these variously extracted materials are also reported. Tests for the presence of specific natural products indicate the presence of alkaloids, carbohydrates, steroids and flavonoid~ in most of the materials.