GINGER. 



Zingiber officinale Roscoe. 



DR. AI^BERT SCHNEIDKR, 



Northwestern University School of Pharmacy. 



' ' And ginger shall be hot i' the mouth, too. ' ' 



— Skakespeafe, Twelfth Night, II., 3. 



THE well-known spice ginger is the 

 underground stem {rhizome) of 

 an herbaceous reed-like plant 

 known as Zingiber officinale. 

 The rhizome is perennial, but the leaf 

 and flower-bearing stems are annual. 

 The stems are from three to six feet 

 high. The leaves of the upper part of 

 the stem are sword-shaped; the lower 

 leaves are rudimentary and sheath-like. 

 The flowers occur in the form of 

 conical spikes borne upon the apex of 

 stems which bear only sheath-like 

 leaves. 



The ginger-plant is said to be a na- 

 tive of southern Asia, although it is 

 now rarely found growing wild. It is 

 very extensively cultivated in the 

 tropical countries of both hemispheres, 

 particularly in southern China, India, 

 Africa and Jamaica. The word ginger 

 is said to have been derived from the 

 Greek "Zingiber," which again was de- 

 rived from the Arabian "Zindschabil," 

 which means the "root from India." 

 It is further stated that the word was 

 derived from Gingi, a country west of 

 Pondecheri where the plant is said to 

 grow wild. 



True ginger must not be confounded 

 with "wild ginger," which is a small 

 herbaceous plant (Asarum canadense) 

 of the United States. The long, slender 

 rhizomes of Asarum have a pungent, 



aromatic taste similar to ginger. Ac- 

 cording to popular belief this plant 

 has a peculiar charm. Friends pro- 

 vided with the leaves are enabled to 

 converse with each other, though many 

 miles apart and speaking in the faintest 

 whisper. 



The early Greeks and Romans made 

 extensive use of ginger as a spice and 

 as a medicine. During the third cen- 

 tury it was apparently a very costly 

 spice, but during the eleventh century 

 it became cheaper, owing to extensive 

 cultivation, and was quite generally 

 used in Europe. Dioscrides and Pli- 

 nius maintained that this spice was 

 derived chiefly from Arabia. The 

 noted traveler and historian, Marco 

 Polo (1280-1290) is said to have been 

 the first European who saw the wild- 

 growing plant in its home in India. 

 As early as the thirteenth century a 

 considerable number of varieties of 

 ginger were under cultivation, which 

 received distinctive names as Beledi, 

 Colombino, Gebeli, Deli, etc., usually 

 named after the country or locality 

 from which it was obtained. 



At the present time Jamaica supplies 

 the United States with nearly all of 

 the ginger, and this island is, there- 

 fore, known as "the land of ginger." 

 Cochin-China and Africa also yield 

 much ginger. 



38 



