On National Herbs and spices day, here are ten facts about ginger:
The Latin name for the ginger plant is Zingiber officinale. It belongs to the family Zingiberaceae, along with Turmeric and cardamom.
Zingiber is derived from the Greek zingiberis, which comes from the Sanskrit name of the spice, singabera.
It’s native to the continent of Asia and was one of the first spices to be traded internationally. Today, India is the biggest producer.
A ginger plant can grow as high as 4 feet. It produces clusters of White and Pink flower buds that bloom into Yellow flowers. It’s pretty enough for people who live in sub-tropical areas use it for landscaping in their gardens.
The part of the plant we eat isn’t the root, but a rhizome. If it doesn’t get eaten it can grow into a new plant. In fact, ginger plants don’t produce seeds – they only reproduce in this way.
The spicy scent of ginger is due to high concentrations of a compound known as zingiberene.
In Japan, slices of ginger are eaten between dishes or courses to clear the palate.
There are 80 calories in 100 grams of ginger.
It is commonly used as a treatment for nausea or an upset stomach.
Horse traders used to stick a slice of ginger up a horse’s bum, which would fool the customer into thinking it was livelier.
The six richest people in Britain decide to hold a contest to settle the question of which of them is most successful. It will be a gladiator style contest with each entrant fielding a team of ten super-powered combatants. Entrepreneur Llew Powell sets out to put together his team, which includes his former lover, an employee of his company with a fascinating hobby, two refugees from another dimension (a lonely giant and a drunken sailor), two sisters bound together by a promise, a diminutive doctor, a former Tibetan monk initiate and two androids with a history. As the team train together, alliances form, friendships and more develop, while others find the past is not easy to leave behind.
Meanwhile, a ruthless race of aliens has its eyes on the Earth. Already abducting and enslaving humans, they work towards the final invasion which would destroy life on Earth as we know it. Powell’s group, Combat Team Alpha, stumble upon one of the wormholes the aliens use to travel to Earth and witness for themselves the horrors in store if the aliens aren’t stopped. Barely escaping with their lives, they realise there are more important things to worry about than a fighting competition.
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