Ginger or ginger root is the rhizome of Zingiber officinale, a perennial plant with leafy stems, grass-like and bright green leaves, yellowish green flowers, tuberous and fleshy rhizomes. Ginger is native to Assam, South Central China, East Himalaya and India.
It has a long history of use, and was developed as a cultivar in Oceanic Southeast Asia over 5,000 years ago by Indians and Chinese people. The name Ginger developed from these regions, known as singabera (Sanskrit) and ingiver (Tamil), which in England was recorded as gingifre by Anglo Saxons, later becoming ginger. It was well known in Europe early on. For example, Romans knew of its medicinal qualities and, during the second century AD, is recorded as being taxed within the port of Alexandria to safeguard supplies.
Ginger was known to Indians as the Universal medicine - used for digestive purposes, to help blood circulation and the heart, and warm the body. It was clearly revered around the world for such uses, and was one of the first goods to travel along early global trade routes, originally led by Arabic nations and later Roman. Ginger would most likely have travelled up the Red Sea to Berenike, overland to the Nile and from there to the Mediterranean and the West.
In a study published in 2024, microremains and DNA were analysed from the calculus of individuals buried in the late medieval cemetery of St Leonard, a leprosarium located in Peterborough, England. The results show the presence of ginger (Zingiber officinale), a culinary and medicinal ingredient, within the teeth of individuals affected by leprosy, suggesting they consumed ginger as part of a treatment.
By the 18th century, ginger beer has become a well-known beverage and is thought to have developed around the mid-1700s in Yorkshire - originally as an alcoholic drink of ginger, sugar and water.
Images: The plant Hedychium densiflorum or 'Assam Orange', one example of the Zingiber officinale family (c) Royal College of Physicians; Ginger used in a drink (c) POP Shop