RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Maturity
The moisture content and density of ginger rhizomes
decreased with the increasing fibre and 6-gingerol
content (p 6 0.05, Table 1). The fibre content 16
and an active ingredient (6-gingerol) 11 increased with
age. Baranowski 17 reported that 6-gingerol in ginger
increased with the age of plant from 12 to 34 weeks
and found that the mature ginger that was 34 weeks
old contained the highest 6-gingerol content. In this
work, the mature ginger aged 10–12 months (40–48
weeks) contained the largest amount of 6-gingerol
instead. Therefore, 10–12 month-old ginger was used
in the spray drying process.