The gingers were selected as raw material and the optimum extract conditions of essential oil of ginger were studied by using subcritical extraction technology. The essential oil of ginger from the methods of subcritical extraction and hydro-distillation were compared. The 1, 1, 1, 2-tetrafluoroethane was used as the extraction agent. The optimum conditions of subcritical extraction were as follows: the materials granularity was 60 mesh；subcritical extraction time was 1.5 hours and extraction temperature was 30～40 ℃. Under the conditions, the extraction ratio of ginger essential oil was about 3.14%. The essential oil components were analyzed by GC—MS. α-curcumene and zingiberene were the main components according for 16.39% and 27.59% from subcritical extraction technology. Both the sensory quality and purity of characteristic component of ginger oil obtained using subcritical extraction were better than hydro-distillation.