Botanical Name: Zingiber officinale

Ginger or ginger root is the rhizome of the plant Zingiber officinale, consumed as a delicacy, medicine, or spice. It lends its name to its genus and family (Zingiberaceae). Other notable members of this plant family are turmeric, cardamom, and galangal. The distantly related dicots in the Asarum genus have the common name wild ginger because of their similar taste.

Ginger is indigenous to southern China, from whence it spread to the Spice Islands and other parts of Asia, and subsequently to West Africa and the Caribbean. Ginger appeared in Europe, via India, in the 1st century CE as a result of the lucrative spice trade.