ZONGIBERACEAE, Ginger Family
Ginger (Zingiber officinale) is a very important spice plant from tropical Asia, specifically from the East Indies. This species is also called Jamaican ginger, identifying where much of the commercial crop is grown, but we know that the plant was brought to the West Indies in the early 1500s when the Spanish first occupied the Caribbean islands. During the Middle Ages in Europe ginger had become an important and expensive spice from the east, and the Spaniards fed that interest in the 1500s from their ginger plantations in Jamaica.
This spice plant is a monocotyledon having shoots less than a meter in height with alternate leaves that occur along two vertical rows, 180 degrees apart (distichous), so the plant is fairly easy to identify. The shade-loving plant is a perennial with green shoots that live less than a year. Below-ground are knobby, branched, horizontal rhizomes with adventitious roots. These rhizomes, when cleaned and leaf bases are removed, are golden-brown in color, and they are the ones sold fresh in our stores. Occasionally you will notice the whitish-green growing tip. If fresh, you should be able to grow these, but remember that they need tropical to subtropical temperatures so must be protected from freezing.
The flesh (parenchyma or ground tissue) of the aromatic ginger rhizome contains resin and volatile oils (terpineol, linalol, methyleugenol, and others), which provide the pungent spice of commerce. In addition to being used in powdered form, candied, and fresh, ginger also fills an important role in drinks, such as ginger ale, and perfumes. Ginger snaps and many bakery products contain ginger, and don't forget the gingerbread man, supposedly first introduced or popularized by Queen Elizabeth I of England. Fresh ginger is used widely in stir-fried dishes, especially with fish or meat, and has a much different flavor than do powdered preparations.
Ginger has a very long history of use in folk and herbal medicine, especially in ancient China. Probably its widest use has been to combat nausea. For centuries, chewing ginger has been a standard remedy of mariners and travelers for motion sickness and by pregnant women for controlling morning sickness. Ginger tea is another form of treatment for nausea. In eastern Asia ginger consumption has long been recognized as a way to eliminate or guard against intestinal parasites, and ginger was widely used also by Romans for that purpose. Some antibacterial properties of Z. officinale are in the literature, as are uses for treating migraine and as a substitute for aspirin. Many other curative properties of ginger have been promoted in books, popular articles, and on the web, and quite possibly some of these uses may be vindicated by future scientific studies.