Ginger
Hindi Name: Adrak
Botanical name
Zingiber officinale
Family name
Roscoe Zingiberaceae
Commercial part
The rhizome
Serving the purpose of a taste- maker, an appetizer and a drug, ginger
is known as one of the earliest Oriental spice in Europe and has been
cultivated in India as a fresh vegetable and marketed as a dried spice
since time immemorial. Ginger was an important spice during the Roman
times. During the last centuries of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance,
ginger was used to flavor true beer i.e. the alcoholic beverage obtained
by fermenting malt.
Originally from Central Asia, today ginger is cultivated in all the
tropical and subtropical Asian regions, Brazil, Jamaica and Nigeria. Raw
ginger is popular in South East Asia. In India ginger tea prepared by
cooking slices of fresh ginger for a few minutes, is taken as a spicy
and healthy drink to get relieved form cold and cough.
The fresh, dried or powdered rhizome of a slender perennial herb,
Indian ginger is acclaimed worldwide for its characteristic taste,
flavor & texture. Ginger is cultivated as a cash crop in Africa and
Latin America and its drink known as Ginger ale is very popular in USA.
Like root beer the ginger soft drink is not fermented beer but simply
sugar, ginger extract and carbonated water.
India offers ginger in a variety of forms like, oils, oleoresins, fresh
ginger in brine, pickles, candies and syrups, garbled / ungarbled,
bleached / unbleached and powder form. Though grown all over India, the
finest quality ginger is grown in Kerela. Indian dry ginger is known in
the world market as 'Cochin Ginger' (NUGC) & 'Calicut Ginger'
(NUGK).
India has a predominant position in ginger production and export. The
principal buyers are the Middle East, USA, the UK and the Netherlands.
| Name in International
Languages |
| Spanish: |
Jengibre |
| French: |
Gingembre
|
| German: |
Ingwer |
| Swedish: |
Ingefara |
| Arabic: |
Gember |
| Dutch: |
Knoflook |
| Italian: |
Zenzero |
| Portuguese: |
Gengibre |
| Russian: |
Imbir |
| Japanese: |
Shoga |
| Chinese: |
Chiang |
|
