Prevention of quality changes in the cultured wild ginseng during storage

Physicochemical changes were investigated for the shelf-life extension of cultured wild-ginseng roots during storage with various pre-treatments with blanching, CAMICA-SD and DF-100 and treatments with citric acid and vitamin C. The pH of cultured wild-ginseng roots showed the range of 6.06-6.42 at 10°C, but showed higher ranges of 6.08-6.91 and 6.08-8.68 at 20 and 30°C, respectively. Browning index (a/b) was increased with increasing storage temperature, and the index at 10 and 30°C were 0.405 and 0.469 after 2 weeks, respectively. Browning index and viable cell number of CAMICA-SD pre-treatment showed little changes compared to pre-treatment with blanching or DF-100. When the cultured wild-ginseng roots were treated with 1.0% citric acid and 0.2% DF-100 after pre-treatments with CAMICA-SD, viable cell number was slightly increased to 4.9×10² CFU/g for 3 weeks storage at 10oC. The mixture of citric acid and DF-100 was also used to prevent the growth of microbiology and to reduce browning reaction, especially enzymatic browning reaction. The mixture might effectively extend shelf life of the cultured wild-ginseng roots.