Mother
Nature’s Multifaceted Herb!
Official
name: Zingiber officinale
Ginger is an
important
spice used all over the world. Europeans traveled to Asia in search of Indian spices and ginger was one such
interesting spice that attracted them.
In modern world, ginger has great culinary and medicinal value. Although its origin seems to be from china,
many believe that ginger marketing began in Southeast Asia, especially India. Indian life is never complete without spices
and ginger occupies a very major role in the daily life of an average
Indian.
The
etymology of the word ginger is very interesting. The word ginger is traced to Gingivere -
English, Gengibre - old French, Gingiber - Latin, Zingiber - German, Srngavera
- Sankskrit
Srngavera
in Sanskrit best explains the herb.
Srnga means horn, vera has a Dravidian tone that means root. Thus srngavera
means horn like root.
Srngaverapura
was once a trade post in the banks of river Ganga in India and has a reference in the
great Indian epic Ramayana.
Ginger
belongs to the family as bananas called Scitaminaceae. Ginger, like banana, is an herb and has
pseudo-stem or false stem. Ginger is a perennial herb that grows up to a height
of about one to three feet. There are
many varieties of gingers in the world.
Some of them are the Jamaican ginger supposedly the most revered. The African ginger, the Cochin
ginger, the Calcutta ginger, the Calicut ginger also known
as lemon ginger, the Japanese ginger.
The botanical info about ginger:
The
ginger rhizomes are very aromatic, and contain an essential volatile oil that
gives the characteristic odor and a substance called gingerol that is less than
5% that is of light yellow color.
Use as medicine:
The
chief importance of ginger is in its carminative action. The capacity to expel gases from
stomach. Its is basically aromatic and
stimulates the gastro-intestinal tract, and enhances the secretion of the
digestive juices. Ginger also helps in
the stimulating the formation of saliva – sialagogue in nature.Ginger
juice helps amelioration and stoppage of diarrhea.
Keeping
ginger juice with honey in the mouth helps reduce hoarseness of voice affected
due to severe cold or intake of ice.
Ginger
acts as a remedy in many kinds of chronic bowel disorders.
When
suffering from indigestion and low appetite, equal parts of ginger juice, lemon
juice and rock salt when mixed and taken together before meals helps improve
appetite and cleans the tongue and the throat.
Ginger
juice helps in overcoming nausea.
Ginger
is used in treating fresh cough, skin eruptions, round worm infections,
diabetes, ear-ache, chronic rheumatism, anorexia, constipation, bronchitis,
headache, fatigue, asthma, jaundice and stomachache.
Other uses:
Ginger is also made into candy. The candy when kept in the mouth helps
the secretion of saliva and thereby removes nausea. Ginger candy called Indjimarappa in Tamil
Nadu, India,
is available for travelers to help them overcome
travel related sickness. It is used as a flavoring agent in cookies and cake. The popular ginger ale - a sweet, carbonated drink
has ginger flavor.