The Zingiberaceae family includes several commonly used spices – ginger, turmeric, galangal, cardamom, black cardamom, grains of paradise, zedoary – as well as a substantially larger number of lesser-known spices.
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Turmeric (Curcuma longa), Kohler’s Medizinal-Pflanzen, 1883–1914.
(Biodiversity Heritage Library)
The largest genus (of the fifty-three genera) is Alpinia, with some 244 accepted species, followed by Etlingera, Curcuma, Zingiber, Globba, Renealmia, Riedelia, Amomum, Aframomum and Boesenbergia. Ginger, turmeric, galangal and zedoary are used for their rhizomes, while cardamom and grains of paradise are used for their seeds.
The ginger plant, Zingiber officinale, is a slender tropical perennial which grows to a height of around 1m with a rhizome or root stem that bears leafy shoots. Leaves are lanceolate, typically about 15cm long. The inflorescence is a spike with yellowish flowers that have purple edges. The plant is probably native to India and further eastwards to south central China, though is now widely distributed in the tropics. Ridley commented that it doesn’t appear to have been met in a wild state anywhere (i.e. it is a cultigen), so its precise original home is not clear.1 It appears to thrive in a variety of tropical habitats and is widespread in lowland and highland environments. Watt referred to the origin of the word via the Sanskrit sringavera, which might imply an Indian origin.2 In India, the densest production today is in the north-east, Assam, Bengal, etc., and in Kerala, though it is widespread across the country. This was the same over 100 years ago and may have been similar in antiquity. In 1596, the Dutch merchant and explorer Jan van Linschoten, describing the west coast of India, said, ‘There is likewise great store of Ginger, as also all the coast [along], but little esteemed there.’3 He further said, ‘Ginger groweth in manie places of India, yet the best, & most caryed abroad, is that which groweth in the coast of Malabar.’4 The rhizome provides the sought-after spice – it has a pleasant, flowery aroma and pungent taste that is widely admired.
The young rhizomes tend to be juicy, while the mature ones are drier and more fibrous. It has had a huge variety of uses in both modern and ancient cuisine.Turmeric (Curcuma longa) is a similar plant to ginger, and its rhizomes are also widely used as a seasoning in cooking. It is also native to India. The plants are perennial herbs reaching up to 1m in height with tufts of lanceloate leaves and colourful inflorescence with pale green bracts on spikes. The rhizome is bright orange-coloured inside and has a warm, bitter, peppery flavour, while the powder has a pleasant, mild, earthy aroma with a bitter aftertaste. It is known colloquially as Indian saffron due to its colouring properties.
Galangal has a bit of an identity crisis. The name is or has been ascribed to three different genera/four different species in the ginger family: greater galangal (Alpinia galanga); lesser galangal (Alpinia officinarum); Chinese ginger/Chinese keys/lesser galangal (Boesenbergia rotunda) with a long history as spice and medicinal plant, especially in Southeast Asia; and black galangal (Kaempferia galanga), sometimes confused with lesser galangal.
Galangal is native to tropical Asia and is a perennial plant that grows up to 1–2m in height depending on variety. Leaves are long and blade-like and flowers small and white with red veins. Like ginger, galangal is cultivated for its rhizome, which is most commonly used fresh sliced or dried and powdered. The taste is sharp and peppery with citrus notes. Galangal is commonly used in Southeast Asian cookery, especially in Thai food. Lesser galangal is more pungent than greater galangal.
In addition to the above is the similar zedoary or white turmeric (Curcuma zedoaria) and (the unrelated) Cyperus roots (Cyperus longus) – the ‘English galingale’ as described by Culpeper. ‘Galingale’ was sometimes used archaically as a synonym for galangal. Zedoary is another plant cultivated for its rhizome, though it is infrequently used in the West.
It is characterised by large leaf shoots and a flower spike with pale yellow flowers and red and green bracts. The rhizomes are large and fleshy, white to pale orange inside. They are less pungent than ginger or turmeric but have a bitter aftertaste. They are mainly used as spices in India and Southeast Asia.Cardamom comprises the seeds of Elettaria cardamomum, an aromatic perennial herb that can reach heights of almost 4m. The seed pods are pale green coloured and have a characteristic spindle shape with a triangular cross-section. The plant is native to India. In India it thrives at high elevations, between 800 and 1,500m, as an understorey crop, shaded beneath forest trees.5 Related species (from a different genus) are white cardamom (Amomum krervanh) and black cardamom (Amomum subulatum), the latter being native to the Himalayan areas of India, Nepal and southern China. Cardamom has a very strong taste and a pungent, resinous aroma, semblent of eucalyptus, menthol and aniseed.
Grains of Paradise (Aframomum melegueta), or melegueta pepper, is another ginger family spice. The small red-brown seeds have a mildly fragrant aroma and the taste is hot and peppery, with a slight gingery tang. The reed-like plant is a biennial native to the West African coastal belt from Guinea to Angola, has large blade-like leaves and moderate stems (it can reach 1.5m in height), with purple flowers which develop into pods containing the seeds.