GINGER (AS. gingiber, OF. gengibre, from Lat. zingiber, Gk. rol)4ep:1, zingiberis, ginger, from Ar., Pers. zanjabil, from Prak. singabera, from Skt. arngavera, ginger), Zingiber. A genus of plants of the order Zingiberacen, natives of the East Indies. The species, of which there are about twenty, are perennial herbs with an nual stems, creeping rootstalks, and leaves in two opposite rows. The flowers are in compact spikes with bracts. The rootstocks of most of the species are used as a condiment and in Medicine. The most valuable and generally used are those of the common ginger (Zingiber offici nale), sometimes distinguished as the narrow leaved ginger, now cultivated in various tropical countries. In the East Indies this plant has been cultivated from time immemorial; in the West Indies, particularly in Jamaica, from whence the finest quality is derived, and Sierra Leone, from both of which, as well as from the East Indies, its rootstocks—the ginger of com merce—are a considerable article of export. Like the banana and other plants that have long been in cultivation, ginger is grown wholly from cut tings, having apparently lost the ability to set seed. The rootstock is about the thickness of a man's finger, knotty, fibrous, and fleshy when fresh. The stems are reed-like, generally three or four feet high, invested with smooth sheaths of the linear-lanceolate smooth leaves. The flow ers are not produced on the leafy stems, but on short stapes in spikes about the size of a man's thumb, and are of a whitish color, the lip streaked with purple. The cultivation of ginger is ex tremely easy wherever the climate is suitable. In India it is carried on to an elevation of 4000 or 5000 feet on the Himalayas, in moist situa tions. It may be cultivated at higher latitudes if the rootstocks are taken up and protected during the winter. In harvesting the crop the rootstock is taken up when the stems have withered, and is prepared for the market either by scalding in boiling water—in order to kill it—and subsequent drying, or by scraping and washing. The first method yields black or coated ginger; the second white or scraped ginger; the blackest of black ginger, however, being only a stone color, and the whitest of white ginger very far from perfectly white, unless bleaching by chloride of lime be after wards employed, as is done not unfrequently to improve its appearance, a. process not otherwise advantageous. Ginger found in the shops is sometimes covered with a white coating, usually of lime. This is thought to improve its appear ance, but usually covers an inferior grade. There is a considerable difference, however, in the orig inal color of the rootstalks of ginger of dif ferent countries, which is supposed to be owing to difference in the varieties cultivated. The uses
of ginger, both in medicine as a stimulant and a carminative, and in domestic economy as a condiment, are too well known to require particu lar notice. The principal constituents of ginger root are a pale yellow volatile oil called 'oil of ginger,' gingerol, oleoresin, and often as much as 20 per cent. of starch. The yield of oleoresin is from 5 to 8 per cent. Medicinally, ginger is used as a fluid extract, oleoresin, tincture, powder, and in various standard preparations as compound rhubarb powder, etc. Candied ginger, or preserved ginger, consists of the young root stocks preserved in sugar, and is now exported in considerable quantity from China, as well as from the East and the West Indies. It is a delicious sweetmeat, and is useful also as a stomachic. Essence of ginger, much used for flavoring, is in reality a tincture prepared of ginger and alcohol. Syrup of ginger is used chiefly by druggists for flavoring. Ginger tea, an infusion of ginger in boiling water, is a domestic remedy very useful in cases of flatu lence. Ginger beer is a well-known beverage flavored with ginger. Ginger wine is a cheap liquor flavored with ginger. Ginger was known to the Romans, and is said by Pliny to have been brought from Arabia.
Another species of ginger is zerumbet (Zingi ber Zerumbel), also called broad-leaved ginger, cultivated in Java, and of which the rootstock is sometimes erroneously called round zedoary. The rootstalk is much thicker than that of common ginger, and is less pungent. The root stock of the cassumunar (Zingiber Cassumunar), sometimes called yellow zedoary, has a camphor like smell, and a bitter aromatic taste. It acquired a high reputation as a medicine in England and throughout Europe about the close of the seventeenth century, but having been ex tolled not merely as a stimulant and stomachic, hut as possessing virtues which did not in reality belong to it, it soon sank into oblivion. The rootstock of the mioga (Zingiber Mioga) is less pungent than ginger, and is much used in Japan. Cattle sent to graze in the jungles of Northern India during the rainy season are supplied with the rootstock of a species of ginger (Zingiber capitatum), to preserve their health. The root of Asarum Canadense is sometimes called Indian ginger or wild ginger in North America, and is used as a substitute for ginger. It has a grate ful aromatic odor and taste, and is stimulant, tonic, and diaphoretic. See ASARABACCA; Plate Of FLAVORING PLANTS.