## 1 Introduction  
The use of herbs and shrubs to manage health problems is well-known and plant extracts have gained much attention from scientists from all disciplines due to their traditional uses in different health conditions. Among them, _Zingiber officinal_ Roscoe rhizomes has been extensively used as a food ingredient because of its strong and unique flavor. This species originated in Southeast Asia mainly from India but is at present is well distributed in East Asia, Australia and Africa as well as in America, and its use in traditional medicine is well documented in Sanskrit, Chinese, Greek, Arabic and Roman ethnomedicine [1].  
Ginger has been used to block excessive clotting of blood in arteries and veins, to reduce cholesterol, and to fight against arthritis, high blood pressure, infections, lung diseases, cold, cough and as a pain killer [2; 3; 4; 5]. It has also been used as a digestive aid and antinausea remedy, to treat bleeding disorders, rheumat, baldness, toothache, snakebite, and respiratory conditions [6].  
Most of the above-mentioned health complications have some of their foundation on the molecular oxidant status. This so-called oxidative stress due to free radicals in the organism has demonstrated to play a relevant role in human diseases, linked to oxidant stress and inflammatory processes that contribute to aging and age-related diseases [7] independently from various risk factors (i.e., age, race, diet, environment and behavior). Therefore, the use of antioxidants and among them, polyphenols in pharmacology, are intensively studied [8]. The proper intake of antioxidants will help eliminate free radicals in the body, improving the health by lowering the risk of various degenerative and infectious diseases.  
Research indicates that numerous compounds are present in ginger, as shown by chemical analyses, for instance terpen and polyphenols including phenolic acids [9; 10]. From this important diversity of compounds, gingerols and shogaols are the most prominent [11; 12], these last compounds being the result of gingerols dehydration [13]. Both polyphenol types are responsible for the broad bioactivity [14; 15; 16].  
The worldwide use of this ancient herb as a spice and within the natural medicine market has made it one of the most relevant in terms of economic trade, being cultivated in more than 35 countries around the world. In 2019, the global production of ginger was over 4000 tons with India being the top producing country, accounting for 43.81% of the total global production and Nigeria the second, accounting for 16.94% [17]. This trade potential drove producers to establish ginger cultivation in Costa Rica to supply the local market and to export to Europe. However, no sufficient scientific evidence exists on the contents and therefore on the quality and bioactive potential of their local products. The application of HPLC spectroscopy has shown to be a reliable method to utilize the metabolic profiling of ginger samples and to further discriminate their quality and determine the influence of different factors such as geographical origin, harvest time, drying, and processing techniques [18], which in turn change the bioactive potential as antioxidant [19].  
Hence, our work objective consisted in obtaining extracts of _Z. officinal_ Roscoe rhizomes cultivated in different parts of Costa Rica and under different growth and harvesting conditions (\(n=17\)) to characterize their polyphenols through UPLC-QTOF-ESI MS and to assess the main gingerols and shogaols contents using UPLC-DAD. In addition, our work aimed to determine their antioxidant activity through FC and DPPH methods and to apply correlation studies and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to the data obtained. Finally, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first detailed study on _Z. officinal_ Roscoe from Central America.