Ginger processing made easy

Processing ginger into by-products is now easy with a newly-developed machine.

Researchers at the Bicol University College of Agri-culture and Forestry (BUCAF) have developed a processing machine that makes conven-ient and conversion of ginger, locally known as "luya," into by-products like oil, medicine, wine, ginger powder, tea, and juice.

Testing of the machine for ginger juice extraction showed an average extraction capacity of 31.22 kilograms/hour and extraction rate of 404.20 millimeters/minute.

The juice recovered from the 25 kilos of fresh ginger was 78 percent while the amount of juice lost was only 24 percent. The machine’s overall extraction efficiency within 29 minutes was 92 percent.

The machine, powered by a one-horsepower electric motor, with power consumption of 0.41 kilowatt-hour requires only one person to operate. It could extract juice from washed ginger without grating or slicing, however, big rhizomes should be divided into two to three pieces for efficient extraction.

Cost analysis using 15 kilos of ginger per day showed that labor cost of manual extrac-tion was higher (P1,173.75) than mechanical extraction (P130). Hence, the mechanical operation could save P1,038.75 per kilo gram or a manpower of seven persons compared with manual operation. – Ofelia F. Domingo, S&T Media Service