Ginger and its history

Ginger is the rhizome of the perennial flowering plant Zingiber officinale. This fragrant rootstalk has been widely used as both a spice and as a medicine. It appears to have originated in southern and eastern Asia, and was first domesticated by Austronesian peoples thousands of years ago. Lapita peoples transported it throughout the Indo-Pacific as far as Hawai’i.

The culinary applications of ginger was documented centuries ago in China, where Confucious was said to eat ginger with every meal. There are records that ginger was grown in pots on Chinese ships as a preventative for scurvy. The plant was later imported into Europe and grown in the Carribean as an export crop, until it was finally displaced by sugar grown by enslaved Africans in the 17th century. Ginger continues to be grown widely across the Pacific moana and features in Pasifika cuisines.

Links and references
Ginger From Ancient Times to the New Outlook - PMC
Ginger | Description, Plant, Spice, Rhizome, Uses, Flavor, & Facts | Britannica
Ginger - Wikipedia
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Image credit: Franz Eugen Köhler, Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen - The Internet Archive List of Koehler Images