Ginger

Ginger oil is distilled from the root, and it does not taste of ginger. The heat and bite of fresh ginger come from gingerols, which are too heavy to travel with the steam and stay behind in the root. What comes over is zingiberene and its relatives, giving a warm, woody spice without the burn. In a study of patients after abdominal surgery, smelling the oil reduced sickness and vomiting in the first six hours.^[2] The plant has been used as a medicine for five thousand years across Ayurvedic, Chinese and Unani traditions.

Ginger

Zingiber officinale

Also Known As: Ginger Root
Family: Spice
Perfumery Note: Middle
Intensity: Strong
Extraction: Steam Distillation
Plant Parts: Rhizome (Root)
Origins: India, China, Indonesia
Effect: Energy & Uplifting, Warming & Comforting
Aroma: Spicy, Warm, Woody
Applications: Diffusing & Inhalation, Massage & Body, Cooking & Flavouring
Price: $$$$The dried roots are dense; steam distillation is slow to extract the heavy aromatic molecules

This is the steam-distilled oil, warm and woody rather than hot. Around a third of it is zingiberene, with a supporting cast of related compounds that give the spice its depth. The gingerols that make fresh ginger burn are not in it, because they do not survive distillation. In a trial of 60 women having chemotherapy, inhaling the oil lowered nausea on the first day.^[2] The benefit did not hold across the whole course, vomiting did not improve, and the researchers called the case unconvincing.^[2]

Ginger CO2

Zingiber officinale

Also Known As: CO2 Ginger Extract, Supercritical Ginger, Ginger Oleoresin
Family: Spice
Perfumery Note: Middle
Intensity: Strong
Extraction: CO2 Extraction
Plant Parts: Rhizome
Origins: India, Madagascar, China
Effect: Energy & Uplifting
Aroma: Warm, Spicy, Rich, Root-like, Earthy
Applications: Diffusing & Inhalation, Perfumery & Fragrance Making, Cooking & Flavouring
Price: $$$$Supercritical CO2 extraction requires specialised high-pressure equipment and higher input costs than steam distillation; significantly more expensive per unit volume

This is an extract, made by squeezing carbon dioxide into a liquid and washing the compounds out of the root. Because it runs cool, it keeps the gingerols that steam distillation destroys.^[3] That is why it smells like actually cutting into fresh ginger, resinous and heavy, where the distilled oil smells lighter and drier. 6-gingerol is the compound behind ginger's reputation for settling the stomach and calming swelling. If that is what you want from ginger, this is the form that carries it.^[4]

Plai

Zingiber zerumbet

Also Known As: Cassumunar Ginger, Bitter Ginger, Shampoo Ginger, Zerumbet Ginger
Family: Spice
Perfumery Note: Middle
Intensity: Strong
Extraction: Steam Distillation
Plant Parts: Rhizome
Origins: Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia
Effect: Warming & Comforting, Respiratory Support
Aroma: Camphorous, Fresh, Spicy, Herbaceous, Medicinal
Applications: Diffusing & Inhalation, Massage & Body
Price: $$$$Specialist oil primarily produced in Southeast Asia; limited Western distribution infrastructure and small-batch production drive higher retail prices

Plai is a Thai relative of ginger, but it smells nothing like it, sharp and camphorous rather than warm. Its defining compound is zerumbone, which common ginger does not make at all. In mice, zerumbone damped down both short-term and long-term inflammation, and did so more the higher the dose.^[5] Reviews find it eases pain and swelling by a different route from ginger's gingerols.^[6] Thai massage has used it on strains and sprains for a long time, and sports therapists in the West have taken it up.

Essential Nose

Ginger

Ginger

Ginger CO2

Plai

References