B&W Tek Raman System to Detect the Spices in Gingerbread Cookies

Since the 1930s, one long-standing Chrsitmas tradition remains a common practice in the United States - putting out a plate of cookies and a glass of milk for Santa Claus.¹

Now the season is over and the New Year resolutions take hold, Santa Claus is having a hard time reducing his waist size as he eats over 300 million cookies in a single night, thanks to the generosity of many homes in the United States.²

The gingerbread man is the iconic cookie that stands out among the millions of cookies eaten during the season. Gingerbread gets its distinct flavor from a blend of molasses (dark brown sugar) and gingerbread spice – a mixture of ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and allspice.

Each of these spices offers a range of health benefits. For example, ginger soothes the symptoms of nausea and vomiting and alleviates types of inflammation and pain;³ and cinnamon helps regulate blood glucose as a consequence of type 2 diabetes and obesity.⁴

Using B&W Tek’s portal Raman with BWID software, a Raman spectral library of spices can be easily assembled. Alternatively, using the library function of a handheld Raman can also help identify bags of unknown or unlabelled spices you may have in your kitchen or wish to buy in the market.

B&W Tek Raman Systems are equipped with either 532-nm, 785-nm or 1064-nm lasers. To generate the optimal Raman spectra from spices, portable Raman 1064-nm systems like i-Raman EX, i-Raman Prime-1064, STRam-1064, or handheld Raman 1064-nm systems like TacticID-Mobile, TacticID-1064 or NanoRam-1064, are advised. 

Using a light source with this wavelength significantly decreases the powerful fluorescence emitted by dark and natural samples. The Raman spectra acquired from nine different spices using STRam-1064 are displayed in Figure 1a, while Figure 1b exhibits the library search result of cinnamon utilizing the BWID software with a spectral library.

Correspondingly, a spice library can be generated in the TacticID-1064 and employed to determine containers of unknown spices (Figure 2). It is vital to use low laser power as spices can burn under an intense laser.

The B&W Tek Raman system laser power can be adjusted at increments of 1%, making them ideal for acquiring Raman spectra from flammable samples.

For further information about B&W Tek’s Raman systems, visit https://bwtek.com/technology/raman/.

Figure 1. Raman Spectra of nine different spices collected using portable Raman system with 1064-nm laser (a) and identification of Raman spectrum of a cinnamon sample using the spice library of BWID created using the Raman spectra of spice samples. Image Credit: B&W Tek

Figure 2. Library creation view (a) identifying turmeric (b) Comparison of Raman spectra of a turmeric sample and turmeric Raman spectra in the Spice library. Image Credit: B&W Tek

References & Further Reading

1. Don’t Forget Santa’s Cookies and Milk: The History of a Popular Christmas Tradition, History, https://www.history.com/news/dont-forget-santas-cookies-and-milk-the-history-of-a-popular-christmas-tradition (accessed 12/17/2021).
2. Christmas cookies by the numbers: Guess how many cookies Santa eats on Christmas Eve?, Fox News, https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/christmas-cookies-by-the-numbers-cookies-santa-christmas-eve  (accessed 12/17/2021).
3. Singletary, K., 2010. Ginger: an overview of health benefits. Nutrition Today, 45(4), 171-183.
4. Singletary, K., 2008. Cinnamon: overview of health benefits. Nutrition Today, 43(6), 263-266.

This information has been sourced, reviewed and adapted from materials provided by B&W Tek .

For more information on this source, please visit B&W Tek .