_Radix Zingiberis_; _Ginger_; F. _Gingembre_; G. _Ingwer_.
=Botanical Origin=—_Zingiber officinale_ Roscoe (_Amomum Zingiber_
L.), a reed-like plant, with annual leafy stems, 3 to 4 feet high, and
flowers in cone-shaped spikes borne on other stems thrown up from the
rhizome. It is a native of Asia, in the warmer countries of which it
is universally cultivated,[2349] but not known in a wild state. It has
been introduced into most tropical countries, and is now found in the
West Indies, South America, Tropical Western Africa, and Queensland in
Australia.
=History=—Ginger is known in India under the old name of _Sringavera_,
derived possibly from the Greek Ζιγγίβερι. As a spice it was used among
the Greeks and Romans, who appear to have received it by way of the
Red Sea, inasmuch as they considered it to be a production of Southern
Arabia.
In the list of imports from the Red Sea into Alexandria, which in
the second century of our era were there liable to the Roman fiscal
duty (_vectigal_), _Zingiber_ occurs among other Indian spices.[2350]
During the middle ages it is frequently mentioned in similar lists, and
evidently constituted an important item in the commercial relations
between Europe and the East. Ginger thus appears in the tariff of
duties levied at Acre in Palestine about A.D. 1173;[2351] in that of
Barcelona[2352] in 1221; Marseilles[2353] in 1228; and Paris[2354]
in 1296. The _Tarif des Péages_, or customs tariff, of the Counts of
Provence in the middle of the 13th century, provides for the levying
of duty at the towns of Aix, Digne, Valensole, Tarascon, Avignon,
Orgon, Arles, &c., on various commodities imported from the East.
These included spices, as pepper, _ginger_, cloves, zedoary, galangal,
cubebs, saffron, canella, cumin, anise; dye-stuffs, such as lac,
indigo, Brazil wood, and especially alum from Castilia and Volcano; and
groceries, as racalicia (liquorice), sugar and dates.[2355]
In England ginger must have been tolerably well known even prior to
the Norman Conquest, for it is frequently named in the Anglo-Saxon
leech-books of the 11th century, as well as in the Welsh “Physicians
of Myddvai” (see Appendix). During the 13th and 14th centuries it was,
next to pepper, the commonest of spices, costing on an average nearly
1_s._ 7_d._ per lb., or about the price of a sheep.[2356]
[2349] The mode of cultivation is described by Buchanan, _Journey from
Madras through Mysore, etc._ ii. (1807) 469.—Fig. of the plant in
Bentley and Trimen’s _Medic. Plants_, part 32 (1878).
[2350] Vincent, _Commerce and Navigation of the Ancients_, ii. (1807)
695.
[2351] _Recueil des Historiens des Croisades_; _Lois_, ii. (1843) 176.
[2352] Capmany, _Memorias sobre la Marina, etc. de Barcelona_, Madrid,
ii. (1779) 3.
[2353] Méry et Guindon, _Hist. des Actes ... de la Municipalité de
Marseille_, i. (1841) 372.
[2354] _Revue archéologique_, ix. (1852) 213.
[2355] _Collection de Cartulaires de France_, Paris, viii. (1857) pp.
lxxiii-xci., Abbaye de St. Victor, Marseilles.
[2356] Rogers, _Hist. of Agriculture and Prices in England_, i. (1866)
629.
The merchants of Italy, about the middle of the 14th century, knew
three kinds of ginger, called respectively _Belledi_, _Colombino_, and
_Micchino_. These terms may be explained thus:—_Belledi_ or _Baladi_ is
an Arabic word, which, as applied to ginger, would signify _country_ or
_wild_, i.e. _common ginger_. _Colombino_ refers to Columbum, Kolam or
Quilon, a port in Travancore frequently mentioned in the middle ages.
Ginger termed _Micchino_ denotes that the spice had been brought from
or by way of Mecca.[2357]
Ginger preserved in syrup, and sometimes called _Green Ginger_, was
also imported during the middle ages, and regarded as a delicacy of the
choicest kind.
The plant affording ginger must have been known to Marco Polo (_circa_
1280-90), who speaks of observing it both in China and India. John of
Montecorvino, who visited India about 1292 (see p. 521), describes
ginger as a plant like a flag, the root of which can be dug up and
transported. Nicolo Conti also gave some description of the plant and
of the collection of the root, as witnessed by him in India.[2358]
The Venetians received ginger by way of Egypt; yet some of the superior
kinds were conveyed from India overland by the Black Sea, as stated by
Marino Sanudo[2359] about 1306.
Ginger was introduced into America by Francisco de Mendoça, who took it
from the East Indies to New Spain.[2360] It was shipped for commercial
purposes from the Island of St. Domingo as early at least as 1585; and
from Barbados in 1654.[2361] According to Renny,[2362] 22,053 cwt. were
exported from the West Indies to Spain in 1547.
[2357] Yule, _Book of Ser Marco Polo_, ii. (1871) 316.—See, however,
Heyd, _Levantehandel_, II. (1879) 601.
[2358] See Appendix.
[2359] Marinus Sanutus, _Liber secretorum fidelium crucis_, Hanoviæ
(1611) 22.
[2360] Monardes, _Historia de las cosas que se traen de nuestras Indias
occidentales_, Sevilla, (1574) 99.
[2361] _Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series_, 1574-1660, Lond.
1860, p. 4; see also pp. 414, 434.
[2362] Renny, _Hist. of Jamaica_, Lond. 1807. 154.
=Description=—Ginger is known in two forms, namely the rhizome dried
with its epidermis, in which case it is called _coated_; or deprived of
epidermis, and then termed _scraped_ or _uncoated_. The pieces, which
are called by the spice-dealers _races_ or _hands_, rarely exceed 4
inches in length, and have a somewhat palmate form, being made up of a
series of short, laterally compressed, lobe-like shoots or knobs, the
summit of each of which is marked by a depression indicating the former
attachment of the leafy stem.
To produce the _uncoated ginger_, which is that preferred for medicinal
use, the fresh rhizome is scraped, washed, and then dried in the sun.
Thus prepared, it has a pale buff hue, and a striated, somewhat fibrous
surface. It breaks easily, exhibiting a short and farinaceous fracture
with numerous bristle-like fibres. When cut with a knife the younger
or terminal portion of the rhizome appears pale yellow, soft and
amylaceous, while the older part is flinty, hard and resinous.
_Coated ginger_, or that which has been dried without the removal of
the epidermis, is covered with a wrinkled, striated brown integument,
which imparts to it a somewhat coarse and crude appearance, which is
usually remarkably less developed on the flat parts of the rhizome.
Internally, it is usually of a less bright and delicate hue than
ginger from which the cortical part has been removed. Much of it indeed
is dark, horny and resinous.
Ginger has an agreeable aromatic odour with a strong pungent taste.
=Varieties=—Those at present found in the London market are
distinguished as _Jamaica_, _Cochin_, _Bengal_, and _African_. The
first three are _scraped_ gingers; the last named is a _coated_ ginger,
that is to say, it still retains its epidermis. Jamaica Ginger is the
sort most esteemed; and next to it the Cochin. But of each kind there
are several qualities, presenting considerable variation _inter se_.
Scraped or decorticated ginger is often bleached, either by being
subjected to the fumes of burning sulphur, or by immersion for a
short time in solution of chlorinated lime. Much of that seen in the
grocers’ shops looks as if it had been whitewashed, and in fact is
slightly coated with calcareous matter,—either sulphate or carbonate of
calcium.[2363]
[2363] Mr. Garside (_Pharm. Journ._ April 18, 1874) found both. We have
not observed the carbonate to be used.
=Microscopic Structure=—A transverse section of coated ginger exhibits
a brown, horny external layer, about one millimètre broad, separated by
a fine line from the whitish mealy interior portion, through the tissue
of which numerous vascular bundles and resin-cells are irregularly
scattered. The external tissue consists of a loose outer layer, and an
inner composed of tabular cells: these are followed by peculiar short
prosenchymatous cells, the walls of which are sinuous on transverse
section and partially thickened, imparting a horny appearance. This
delicate felted tissue forms the striated surface of _scraped ginger_,
and is the principal seat of the resin and volatile oil, which here
fill large spaces. The large-celled parenchyme which succeeds is loaded
with starch, and likewise contains numerous masses of resin and drops
of oil. The starch granules are irregularly spherical, attaining at
the utmost 40 mkm. Certain varieties of ginger, owing to the starch
having been rendered gelatinous by scalding, are throughout horny and
translucent. The circle of vascular bundles which separates the outer
layers and the central portion is narrow, and has the structure of the
corresponding circle or nucleus-sheath in turmeric.
=Chemical Composition=—Ginger contains a volatile oil which is the
only constituent of the drug that has hitherto been investigated. By
distilling 112 lb. of Jamaica ginger with water in the usual way, we
obtained 4½ ounces of this oil, or about ¼ per cent. It is a pale
yellow liquid of sp. gr. 0·878, having the peculiar odour of ginger,
but not its pungent taste. It dissolves but sparingly in alcohol
(0·83); and deviates the ray of polarized light 21°.6 to the left, when
examined in a column 50 mm. long. We learn from kind information given
us (1878) by Messrs. Schimmel & Co. at Leipzig, that they obtain as
much as 2·2 per cent. of oil from good ginger.
The burning taste of ginger is due to a resin which we have not
examined, but which well deserves careful analysis. Protocatechuic
acid, which is so commonly afforded by resins (see page 243), is also
produced by melting the resin of ginger with caustic potash, as shown
in 1877 by Stenhouse and Groves.
=Commerce=—Great Britain imported of ginger as follows:—
1868 1869 1870 1871 1872
52,194 cwt. 34,535 cwt. 33,854 cwt. 32,723 cwt. 32,174 cwt.
In 1876 the imports were 62,164 cwt., valued at £169,252.