• Food Science and Preservation
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.297-302
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• 1999

To investigate an alternative technique to phosphine fumigation, being used for controlling storage insects of dried ginseng, comparative effects of gamma irradiation (5 kGy) and fumigation on the content of moisture, saponins, free sugars, and amino acids of commercially-packaged white ginseng were evaluated immediately after and at the 6th month of storage at 20$^{\circ}C$ and 70% RH after both treatments. The initial moisture content (8.44%) of the sample was not changed with the treatments, and maintained the 10% levels of moisture until 6 months of storage. Major ginsenosides were stable to both treatments, but they showed some reduced content in the control and fumigated samples at the 6th month of storage. Gamma irradiation caused some decrease in the content of free sugars and the subsequent storage of the sample resulted in a further reduction in their content in the order of irradiated, fumigated and control samples. Although irradiation and fumigation brought about a decrease in the content of fee amino acids by about 5%, however the storage period for 6 months was shown more influential than the treatments used for the improvement of biological quality in stored white ginseng.