Understanding The Type Of Ginger

Giner (Zingiber officinale), is a type of rhizome that is very popular in its use as a spice and medicinal ingredients. Its rhizome is shaped like fingers that’s bulging on the middle whereas the spicy flavour is caused by ketones compound known as zingeron. Ginger is classified in the family of Zingiberaceae. The scientific name of ginger is given by William Roxburgh from the Greek word zingebri and the Sanskrit word, singaberi.

 

Ginger has pseudo stems with height of 30 to 100 cm. The roots are shaped like rhizome with its base having yellow to reddish color and a pungent smell. It has a pinnate leaf with the length of 15 to 23 mm and height ranging from 8 to 15mm and a feathery petiole. Ginger flower blooms from the ground shaped like an egg with a length of 3,5 to 5cm and width of 1,5 to 1,75 cm. The stem of its flower can be scaled from 5 to 7 pieces. The flower itself has a yellowish green color to it, where as the lips and head of the flower are purple. The ginger flower also has two pistils.

Ginger is thought to originate from India, but there are some who also believes that Ginger comes from South China. From India, ginger is brought as a spice for trading goods through Southeast Asia, China, Japan, and even the Middle East. Then on the 17th century, the herb known as ginger that’s capable of giving foods warmth and spice quickly becomes a popular commodity in Europe.

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Ginger blooms on an elevation ranging from 0 to 1500 meter above sea, with the exception of elephant ginger. In order to achieve optimal productivity, a rainfall of 2500 to 3000mm per year, humidity of 80% and a moist soil with the PH of 5,5 to 7,0 with a high nutrient is needed. The soil that will be used for ginger should not also be inundated with water.

Generally ginger content consists of water, minerals, and also vitamins. The vitamin in ginger consists of vitamin A, vitamin B1, vitamin B3, and vitamin C. Not only that, ginger also has various bio-active substances, antioxidant, enzymes and essential oil.

Types of Ginger

Ginger has tree types that can be differentiated with the scent, color, shape and sizes. Here are some of the types of ginger in the world:

1.         Giant ginger or elephant ginger

Fitting with its name, the giant ginger is a ginger with the biggest size compared to other ginger types. Its rhizome is big and wide. The scent is very pungent, but the taste is not too spicy compared to other types of ginger.

Its inside is white in most part. The fibers on its meat is smaller and softer compared to others. This type of ginger is the most beloved one for international consumers.

With more or less 2% of essential oil in its content making the taste not too spicy. This type of ginger is commonly used as the main ingredient of ginger candy or drinks because of its thick meat.

2.         Red ginger

Red ginger has the highest amount of essential oil compared to other types of ginger making the taste of this ginger the spiciest compared to other types of ginger. The rhizomes on this ginger is small and have a red colored skin just like its name. The fiber on it is also bigger and rougher compared to others.

Because of its spicy taste, this ginger is mostly used as the ingredient of medicine. Because of it, this ginger can be used to ease sore joints, headaches, fever, and others.

Red ginger is a popular ginger in the Asia. But did you know that this is also the most expensive ginger?

Because of its nature as a seasonal plant making it unable to be farmed in abundance. The rarity and the high demand make this ginger the most expensive ginger in the market.

3.         Small white ginger

White ginger has another name called Z. officianale var. Amarum, or what is usually known as small gingers. It’s white in color, lean, and has soft fibers, but it has a scent that’s less sharp compared to red ginger. This type of ginger has lean and somewhat even rhizomes to bulging rhizomes. Its rhizomes are smaller from elephant gingers, but larger in size from red ginger.

This ginger is used as the ingredient for herbs, drinks sweetener, flood flavoring, spices and even as a medicinal ingredient. The content of essential oil in it reaches from 1,7% to 3,8% with an oleoresin degree of 2,39% to 8,87%.

 Related article: How To Make Ginger Drink?

That’s some of the type of gingers in the world. We hope this article can help the readers provide information around ginger and its types.

 

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