Ginger is a plant that grows the best in the warm climates of China, India, and Jamaica. Commercial Ginger is called black or white, according to whether it is peeled or unpeeled; for both kinds the ripened roots are used, after the plant has died down. The black are scalded in boiling water, then dried in the sun. The white (best) are scraped clean and dried, without being scalded. Ginger flowers have an aromatic smell and the bruised stem a characteristic fragrance, but the root is considered the most useful part of the plant, and must not be used under a year's growth.
Geographical Sources : Ginger seems to originate from Southern China. Today, it is cultivated all over tropic and subtropic Asia (50% of the world's harvest is produced in India), in Brazil, Jamaica (whence the best quality is exported) and Nigeria, whose ginger is rather pungent, but lacks the fine aroma of other provenances.
Composition :
The essential oil (1 to 3% of the fresh rhizome) contains mostly sesquiterpenes. The pungency of ginger is caused by a non-volatile resin containing the same type of hydroxyaryl compounds that are also found in other spices
Traditional Ethnic Uses :
Stimulant, carminative. The rhizome (underground stem) of ginger has been used as a spice or flavoring agent. In manufacturing ginger can be used as an ingredient added to soaps and cosmetics.
Taste and Aroma :
Pungent, hot, penetrating and slightly biting.

Ginger is a plant that grows the best in the warm climates of China, India, and Jamaica. Commercial Ginger is called black or white, according to whether it is peeled or unpeeled; for both kinds the ripened roots are used, after the plant has died down. The black are scalded in boiling water, then dried in the sun. The white (best) are scraped clean and dried, without being scalded. Ginger flowers have an aromatic smell and the bruised stem a characteristic fragrance, but the root is considered the most useful part of the plant, and must not be used under a year's growth.
Geographical Sources : Ginger seems to originate from Southern China. Today, it is cultivated all over tropic and subtropic Asia (50% of the world's harvest is produced in India), in Brazil, Jamaica (whence the best quality is exported) and Nigeria, whose ginger is rather pungent, but lacks the fine aroma of other provenances.
Composition :
The essential oil (1 to 3% of the fresh rhizome) contains mostly sesquiterpenes. The pungency of ginger is caused by a non-volatile resin containing the same type of hydroxyaryl compounds that are also found in other spices
Traditional Ethnic Uses :
Stimulant, carminative. The rhizome (underground stem) of ginger has been used as a spice or flavoring agent. In manufacturing ginger can be used as an ingredient added to soaps and cosmetics.
Taste and Aroma :
Pungent, hot, penetrating and slightly biting.