Ginger

A reed-like plant two to four feet tall with long, narrow leaves in two ranks along the stem. The part used is the rhizome: a pale, knobby, branching underground stem with thin tan skin and fragrant yellow flesh. It rarely flowers outside the tropics.

Galangal, turmeric, and cardamom are close relatives in the same family.

Ginger appears in the earliest Chinese herbals, and the Analects say that Confucius did not go without ginger at his meals. It reached the Roman world through Arab and Indian traders and was one of the most valuable spices of medieval Europe; gingerbread became a fair-day treat in England by the 1500s.

Chinese medicine distinguishes fresh ginger (shēng jiāng), which is used to warm the body at the start of a chill and settle the stomach, from dried ginger (gān jiāng), which is considered hotter and more deeply warming. In Korea, ginger tea sweetened with honey or jujube is a standard winter drink.

Plant a plump, fresh rhizome with visible buds in spring, an inch or two deep, in rich, moist soil and bright shade. It needs warmth and steady water, and dies back in fall; dig it then, or grow it in a large pot you can bring indoors. In Arizona it does best in a shady spot with regular water.

Most ginger is unnamed and sold by origin. Hawaiian yellow ginger is plump and mild; Chinese and Indian gingers tend to be more fibrous and pungent. Young “baby ginger,” dug early, has pink-tipped shoots and almost no skin.

Grow it with turmeric and cardamom in a shady, humid corner or container.

Dig the whole clump when the leaves yellow. Keep fresh ginger in the fridge or freezer (grate it frozen), or slice it thin and dry it for tea and powder.

Hot ginger tea with honey is a household drink for a chill, an upset stomach, or motion sickness in homes from China to India to the Caribbean. Grated ginger in a hot foot bath is another old warming remedy.

Fresh ginger starts stir-fries, curries, soups, and marinades. Dried ground ginger flavors baking. Pickled ginger (gari) is served with sushi, and crystallized ginger is candied in sugar syrup.

Fresh rhizome as tea, juice, and seasoning; dried rhizome as powder and decoction. In Chinese medicine fresh ginger is used to warm and “release the exterior” in colds with chills and to stop vomiting. In Ayurveda, dried ginger is used for poor digestion, bloating, cough, and joint pain.

In the herbalism of Chinese martial arts schools, recorded in Walker and Bauer’s The Ancient Art of Life and Death (2002), dried ginger is ground with turmeric, myrrh, frankincense, and other herbs into a warming paste for swelling and bruises, and many classical tonic decoctions, such as the Eight Treasure decoction (bā zhēn tāng), are brewed with a slice of fresh ginger and one jujube.

Chinese medicine (fresh ginger): acrid, slightly warm, entering the Lung, Spleen, and Stomach channels. Ayurveda (dried ginger, shunthi): pungent taste, heating potency, sweet post-digestive effect; reduces Vata and Kapha.

Fresh ginger’s bite comes from gingerols. Drying and heating turn them into shogaols, which are even more pungent, and long cooking produces zingerone, which is milder and sweeter. The aroma comes from an essential oil rich in zingiberene and other sesquiterpenes.

NCCIH reports that ginger may help nausea and vomiting in pregnancy and may ease menstrual cramps, while studies of motion sickness have mostly been disappointing. European regulators, however, accept powdered ginger for preventing motion sickness nausea on the strength of trials, plus traditional uses for mild digestive complaints, loss of appetite, minor joint pain, and colds.

Ginger as food is safe. Supplements can cause heartburn, stomach discomfort, and mouth irritation. Pregnant women should talk with their provider before using ginger supplements, and people on blood thinners should check for interactions.

Grocery ginger is sometimes treated to stop sprouting; for planting, buy organic or seed ginger.