Vol.12 (2022) No. 3 ISSN: 2088-5334 Genetic Diversity and Chemicals Profile of Ginger (Zingiber officinale Roscoe) in Indonesia Dyah Subositi a , Harto Widodo a , Rohmat Mujahid a , Nuning Rahmawati a , Fanie Indrian Mustofa a , Sari Haryanti a , Ika Yanti Marfuatush Sholikhah a , Anshary Maruzy a , Yuli Widiyastuti a a Medicinal Plant and Traditional Medicine Research and Development Center, NIHRD-MoH, Karanganyar, Central Java, Indonesia Corresponding author: * dyah.subositi@gmail.com Abstract— Zingiber officinale is a medicinal plant used to treat various ailments by many ethnic groups in Indonesia. Information on genetic variation and chemical profiling of this plant, especially in the traditional herbal formula in Indonesia, is still limited. The objective of this study was to determine genetic variation and chemical profiling of Zingiber officinale accessions to compile database information. Inter-Simple Sequence Repeats (ISSR) were used to evaluate the genetic diversity of Z. officinale, and Fourier transforms infrared (FTIR) was used to analyze chemical profiling. Dice index similarity was used to calculate a similarity index between accessions, and Unweighted Pair Group Method Using Arithmetic Mean (UPGMA) was used to construct a dendrogram. The ISSR method for genetic profiling proved that Z. officinale from 14 selected ethnic groups were divided into three clusters. The similarity index among Z. officinale accessions ranged from 0.567 to 0.971, indicating high genetic diversity. The high degree of genetic variety detected by ISSR markers demonstrated the marker's efficiency in detecting variation in this Z. offcinale germplasm collection. The FTIR technique's phytochemical profile of Z. officinale analysis shows slight differences in spectra and can be grouped into three clusters. There was no correlation of clustering of Z. officinale accessions between geographical origins based on genetic and chemical profiles. Our findings may be valuable information for breeding, conservation, and utilization of Z. officinale. Keywords— Zingiber officinale; genetic diversity; ISSR; FTIR. Manuscript received 4 Jul. 2021; revised 24 Sep. 2021; accepted 13 Dec. 2021. Date of publication 30 Jun. 2022. IJASEIT is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International License. I. INTRODUCTION Plants are an important source of traditional medicines and are used to treat various ailments due to their minimum of having side effects; plants are easily accessible and affordable [1], [2]. Indonesia consists of 1,068 ethnic groups and represents a wealth of culture, including local medicinal plant knowledge. The National ethnomedicine survey of local knowledge and medicinal plants in Indonesia was conducted in 2012 and observed 209 ethnic groups in 26 provinces (Ristoja). Ristoja aims to create an ethnomedicine database of local herbal formulas and medicinal plants knowledge. It revealed about 15,733 used herbal formulas and 19,738 medicinal plant information in these herbal formulas (1,740 plant species) [3]. Zingiber officinale (ginger) is one of the medicinal plants used in the herbal formula in Ristoja. This revealed that 169 ethnic groups used Z. officinale to treat various ailments such as pre and postnatal care, cough, common cold, stomachache, etc. The most of part plant used was rhizome. Currently, ginger is a significant commercial resource and a commonly used spice and folk remedy throughout the world [4]. Gingerols, shogaols, and paradols are the primary phenolic compounds found in ginger, and they are responsible for the different bioactivities of ginger[5]. In Indonesia, there are three varieties of ginger based on size and color of the rhizome, i.e., Z. officinale var. amarum (small white ginger known as ‘jahe emprit’), Z. officinale var. officinale (big white ginger or giant ginger known as ‘jahe gajah’), and Z. officinale var. rubrum (small red ginger known as ‘jahe merah’) [6]. Plants produce many secondary metabolites as a chemical adaptation to their geographic regime. Environmental factors consist of climate, rainfall, temperature, and soil composition. Meanwhile, agricultural factors include irrigation, fertilization, plantation density, and harvest time. These two factors influence the structures and characteristics of phytochemicals of the plants [7]. Albeit Z. officinale varieties can be distinguishable by morphological characteristics and organoleptic properties, it becomes complicated to discriminate quality within the same varieties of ginger due to 929