Plants: Species

Ginger: True Ginger Zingiber officinale

FAMILY: ZINGIBERACEAE (Ginger Family)

While Americans tend to use Zingiber officinale to make gingerbread and to spice up our Asian cooking, Asians have long used ginger for medicinal purposes as well. It is said to give relief from arthritis and rheumatism, congestion and coughs, fever and disease, and nausea and morning sickness. Because of its immediately recognizable roots, ginger's genus name Zingiber is derived from a Sanskrit word that means "shaped like a deer's antlers."