Gingembre. Ingwer.

No. 734. - Ginger is an aromatic plant, a native of Hindostan, and is cultivated in all parts of India and China. The root is the portion in which the virtues of the plant reside. After the roots are gathered and cleansed they are scalded in boiling water, to prevent germination, and are then rapidly dried. This is the ordinary black ginger, most of which comes from Calcutta, and is called East India Ginger. In Jamaica another variety is prepared by selecting the best roots, depriving them of their epidermis and drying them carefully in the sun. This is the highly valued white Ginger, generally called Jamaica Ginger. A preserve is made from Ginger by selecting the young roots, depriving them of their cortical covering and boiling them in syrup. This is imported from the East and West Indies, and from China. When good it is translucent and tender. The odor of Ginger is aromatic and penetrating, the taste spicy, pungent, hot, and biting. These properties gradually diminish and are ultimately lost by exposure. It is used by pastry cooks, and confectioners, in putting up spiced preserves and fruits. Pieces of Ginger that are light and friable, worm-eaten or very fibrous, should be rejected. Ginger is often adulterated with rice-starch, flour-ginger, brick dust, chalk, capsicum, and mustard. Ginger is a grateful stimulant and carminative, and is often given in dyspepsia, flatulent colic, and the feeble state of the alimentary canal attendant upon atonic gout.