ZINGIBER 

 OFFICINALE 



Madras 



THE GINGER PLANT 



Prepara- 

 tion and 

 Uses. 



Scraped and 

 Unscraped. 



of ginger. " One variety found in gardens in the Konkan has a darker 

 colour than the ordinary ginger and somewhat of a zedoary flavour ; it is 

 known as kala-ala or black ginger." [Cf. Repts. Dept. Land Rec. and 

 Agri., Bombay ; Crop Exper., Bombay, ,] 



Madras. The best Malabar ginger, spoken of so highly by Linschoten, 

 is said to be the produce of the district of Shernaad to the south of Calicut. 



Boils. The soil is a rich red earth, and cultivation generally commences about 



Seasons. the middle of May, after the ground has been thoroughly ploughed and 



harrowed. At the commencement of the monsoon, beds are formed, and 

 on these, holes are dug and filled with manure. Cuttings of the rhizomes 

 are placed in the holes and the beds covered up with a layer of leaves. A 

 fair supply of rain is necessary, but, as inundation entirely ruins the crop, 

 great care is taken in draining. The rhizomes are dug up about November. 

 There are no statistics available relative to area or outturn. 



PREPARATION AND USES. The rhizomes are dug out with a small hand- 

 pick and then consigned to a dealer, who sells them as fresh ginger or converts 

 them into aunth (dried ginger). The pieces of rhizomes are known by spice dealers 

 as "races" or "hands." Nicholls (Textbook Trop. Agri., 1892, 196) describes two 

 methods of drying the rhizomes after they have been dug out, viz. they may be 

 plunged into boiling water for some minutes and then dried in the sun, or they 

 may be scraped with a knife till the black outer skin is removed and then sun- 

 dried. The former is known as "unscraped," "coated," or "black" ginger, the 

 latter as " scraped," " uncoated," and " white." Uncoated Cochin ginger is 

 reputed to be the best kind produced in India. Mollison thus describes the pre- 

 paration in Surat: " The first operation in sunth-makmg is to soak the partially 

 cleaned rhizomes in water. This with rubbing cleans the rhizomes, and also 

 softens them. The soaking facilitates the removal of the outer skin. It is 

 scraped off witli a shell or broken piece of earthenware. The scraped ginger i? 

 now washed and exposed for three or four days to the sun on an ordinary thresh - 



Bleached. ing-floor. The ginger is thus bleached and dried. It is now rubbed by hand. 



The object is not clear. The operation is done carefully, so that the shoots are 



Kubbed. not broken. The ginger is then bleached in the sun for three or four days, and 



again hand rubbed. It is now steeped in water for two hours, and exposed on a 

 clean floor to the sun until it gets dry. When dry it is rubbed on a coarse cloth 

 or coarse sacking. This removes any outer skin not previously removed by 

 scraping. The sunth is now ready for market. The cost of sunth-making is about 

 Rs. 3 per khandi of 20 maunds of green ginger.'' 



Ginger has long been known both to Hindu and Muhammadan medicine, 



Medicine. and its uses in European MEDICINE are well known. It is sold in almost every 



bazar throughout India, and is largely employed as a condiment, especially in 

 the preparation of curries. Gildemeister and Hoffmann (Volatile Oils, 1900, 



Oil. 313-5) give particulars of the ginger OIL trade. The rhizome is also pickled 



and an excellent preserve made by cooking the fresh young rhizomes in syrup. 



Ginger-ale. The manufacture of ginger-beer and ginger-ale forms a large portion of the 



mineral water trade in England and the States. Besides being used as a spice, 

 confection or medicine, ginger is thus used in gingerade, ginger-ale, ginger-beer, 

 ginger-brandy, ginger-wine, gingerbread, ginger lozenges and ginger essence. 

 Soluble essences are required in the manufacture of most of the liquors, etc., in 



Jamaica Ginger, which ginger becomes an important ingredient. The traffic in Jamaica un- 

 bleached ginger is very considerable. [Cf. Pharmacog. 2nd., iii., 420-5; Waring, 

 Bazar Med. Ind., 1897, 69-70 ; Parry, Chem. of Essential Oils and Artif. Per- 

 fumes, 1899, 136-7 ; Dhargal Ker, Notes on Therap. of Indig. Veg. Drugs., 1899, 

 64 ; Dutt, Mat. Med. Hind., 1900, 253-5 ; Blyth, Foods Compos, and Anal., 

 1903, 25 ; Journ. Agri.-Hort. Soc. Ind., 1902, xii., n.s., 85-7 ; Ghosh, Treat. 

 Mat. Med., 1904, 656 ; Leach, Food Inspect, and Anal., 1905, 345-50.] 



Trade. TRADE. The Indian internal trade in ginger is fairly large and 



important. During the five years 1901-2 to 1906-7 the total transac- 

 tions by rail and river averaged 90,639 cwt., amounting in 1906-7 to 

 86,211 cwt. The largest quantities in that year were exported from 

 EASTERN BENGAL and ASSAM with 20,009 cwt. (almost all to Calcutta), 



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