Ginger originated in Southeast Asia. The Chinese were using ginger in the 6th century BC. When the Persian trade missions sent Darius to India in the 5th century BC, he brought back ginger. The Indians used it copiously, but it had only limited success in Greece and Rome. Roman gastronome Marcus Gavius Apicius scarcely mentions it in his 1st-century recipes, or at least not in the manuscripts we have. Dioscorides and Galen thought it was the root of the pepper plant, but Roman historian and naturalist Pliny described ginger as a small plant with a white root.
Arab traders brought ginger to the Mediterranean sometime before the 1st century AD. Ginger became one of the more prominent spices in the cuisine of the Middle Ages; practically every sauce recipe included it.
One of the wonders that Marco Polo found in Cathay in the 13th century was ginger - he mentioned seeing vast plantations devoted to growing it. Nostradamus mentioned a "tonic" confection of sweet almonds, egg white, sugar and ginger pounded together as "excellent and very useful." The Spaniards brought ginger to the Western Hemisphere in the 16th century.
It is believed that ginger took is name from Gingi, near Pondicherry in southern India, where it's thought to have originated. The word came into Latin as zingiber, and French as gingibre in the 12th century and gingembre in the 14th century. Italian gengiovo became zenzero, and Old English gingiber became "ginger."
For centuries, the Chinese have used ginger to subdue nausea; more recently, ginger ale became a common home remedy served to stomach-flu sufferers. Following tradition, today's herbalists still use ginger to treat arthritis, bronchitis, colitis and menstrual cramps, as well.
From The Food Encyclopedia by Jacques Rolland and Carol Sherman
