Spices · Agriculture · 11 min read

Ginger: the Universal Medicine from Kerala's Hills

From "Cochin ginger" on the ships of the spice trade to chukku kaapi on a rainy evening, ginger is one of Kerala's oldest spices. How it is grown in Idukki, dried, graded and traded, and its nutrition, place in Ayurveda and many uses.

By GK Global, Adimali, Munnar · Trails & Tales by GK

Ginger is one of the oldest and most universal of spices: fresh in a cup of tea, dried in a spice mix, candied, brewed into beer and prescribed by healers from China to Arabia. Kerala gave the world one of its most famous forms, "Cochin ginger", the dry ginger shipped for centuries from the port of Kochi. In the hills of Idukki, ginger is grown in the clearings and terraces of small farms, often as an intercrop in young plantations, and the district's growers have long supplied the dry-ginger trade.

History

Ginger was probably first domesticated in tropical South or Southeast Asia, and was being used in India and China in very ancient times. It was among the first spices to reach the Roman world from India, and Arab traders carried it west through the Middle Ages, when ginger was second only to pepper in the European spice trade. Kerala's ports of Kochi and Kozhikode shipped dried ginger to Europe and the Middle East, and the names "Cochin ginger" and "Calicut ginger" are still used in the trade.

Growing ginger

• Climate and soil: ginger needs warmth, humidity and 1,500 to 3,000 mm of rain, with well-drained, loose, fertile loam. It grows up to about 1,500 m and does well under light shade.
• Varieties: traditional Kerala types include Maran, Wayanad local, Kuruppampady and the introduced Rio de Janeiro. Research institutes have released improved varieties such as IISR Varada, Mahima and Rejatha, and Kerala Agricultural University's Athira, Karthika and Aswathy, bred for high yield and dry-ginger recovery.
• Planting: pieces of healthy rhizome ("seed" ginger), each with a bud, are planted in raised beds with the first pre-monsoon showers in April–May.
• Mulching: the beds are covered thickly with green leaves to keep the soil moist and cool, and mulched again as the plants grow.
• Care: weeding, manuring and earthing up the plants.
• Pests and diseases: soft rot (rhizome rot, caused by Pythium) and bacterial wilt are the most serious, together with the shoot borer. Healthy seed and well-drained beds are the best protection.
• Harvest: for fresh (green) ginger and preserves, rhizomes are dug at about 6 months, when they are tender; for dry ginger, at about 8 months, when the leaves turn yellow and dry.

Processing: from fresh to dry ginger

• Cleaning and soaking: rhizomes are washed and soaked overnight.
• Peeling: the skin is scraped off by hand with sharpened bamboo splits or knives, taking care not to cut away the oil-rich layer just under the skin. This gives "peeled" or "rough-scraped" ginger.
• Drying: the peeled ginger is sun-dried for about a week to 10 days until the moisture falls to about 8 to 10 percent. Dry ginger is about 16 to 25 percent of the fresh weight, depending on the variety.
• Bleaching: in the past, ginger was often bleached with lime or sulphur to give a white colour; this is now discouraged for food safety.
• Other products: ginger powder, ginger oil, ginger oleoresin, salted and brined ginger, candied ginger and ginger paste.

Grading and trade

Dry ginger is graded by size, colour, freedom from fibre and moulds, the proportion of extraneous matter and the content of essential oil and pungent compounds. Bold, well-peeled, light-coloured pieces with few cuts and little fibre fetch the best price. Kerala's dry ginger trade has long been centred on Kochi, and dealers in market towns across Idukki buy from farmers. Fresh ginger from Karnataka and Kerala travels by truck to markets all over India. India exports fresh ginger, dry ginger, ginger powder and oleoresin to Bangladesh, the Middle East, Europe, the United States and other markets, while China dominates world exports of fresh ginger.

Nutrition

Approximate values; source: USDA FoodData Central. Spices are eaten in small amounts, so a typical serving supplies only a small share of these nutrients.

Ginger's pungency comes from gingerols in fresh ginger, which turn into shogaols when ginger is dried or cooked, and its aroma from an essential oil rich in zingiberene.

Ginger in Ayurveda

Ayurveda prizes ginger so highly that it calls it Vishvabheshaja, "the universal medicine". Fresh ginger is Ardraka and dry ginger Shunthi, and the two are described as having somewhat different properties. Ginger is traditionally used to stimulate appetite and digestion, relieve nausea, gas and colic, and ease colds, coughs and joint pain. Dry ginger is one of the three ingredients of Trikatu, with black pepper and long pepper. In Kerala, chukku kaapi (dry ginger coffee) and chukku vellam are household remedies for colds. Modern studies support ginger's use against nausea, including motion sickness and morning sickness.

These are traditional uses. Spices are safe in normal food amounts; anyone thinking of using them as medicine, especially in pregnancy, while taking other medicines or for a child, should ask a qualified doctor.

Uses

• Kitchen: fresh ginger in curries, chutneys, pickles (Kerala's inji curry and puli inji), stir-fries and tea; dry ginger in spice blends, baking (gingerbread, biscuits) and drinks.
• Drinks: ginger tea, ginger ale, ginger beer, ginger wine and liqueurs.
• Food industry: ginger powder, oil and oleoresin for flavouring sauces, bakery and confectionery.
• Health products: lozenges, digestive and anti-nausea preparations.
• Cosmetics and perfumery: ginger oil in perfumes, soaps and skin products.