part 32

(1878).

[2350] Vincent, _Commerce and Navigation of the Ancients_, ii. (1807) 695.

[2351] _Recueil des Historiens des Croisades_; _Lois_, ii. (1843) 176.

[2352] Capmany, _Memorias sobre la Marina, etc. de Barcelona_, Madrid, ii. (1779) 3.

[2353] Méry et Guindon, _Hist. des Actes ... de la Municipalité de Marseille_, i. (1841) 372.

[2354] _Revue archéologique_, ix. (1852) 213.

[2355] _Collection de Cartulaires de France_, Paris, viii. (1857) pp. lxxiii-xci., Abbaye de St. Victor, Marseilles.

[2356] Rogers, _Hist. of Agriculture and Prices in England_, i. (1866) 629.

The merchants of Italy, about the middle of the 14th century, knew three kinds of ginger, called respectively _Belledi_, _Colombino_, and _Micchino_. These terms may be explained thus:—_Belledi_ or _Baladi_ is an Arabic word, which, as applied to ginger, would signify _country_ or _wild_, i.e. _common ginger_. _Colombino_ refers to Columbum, Kolam or Quilon, a port in Travancore frequently mentioned in the middle ages. Ginger termed _Micchino_ denotes that the spice had been brought from or by way of Mecca.[2357]

Ginger preserved in syrup, and sometimes called _Green Ginger_, was also imported during the middle ages, and regarded as a delicacy of the choicest kind.

The plant affording ginger must have been known to Marco Polo (_circa_ 1280-90), who speaks of observing it both in China and India. John of Montecorvino, who visited India about 1292 (see p. 521), describes ginger as a plant like a flag, the root of which can be dug up and transported. Nicolo Conti also gave some description of the plant and of the collection of the root, as witnessed by him in India.[2358]

The Venetians received ginger by way of Egypt; yet some of the superior kinds were conveyed from India overland by the Black Sea, as stated by Marino Sanudo[2359] about 1306.

Ginger was introduced into America by Francisco de Mendoça, who took it from the East Indies to New Spain.[2360] It was shipped for commercial purposes from the Island of St. Domingo as early at least as 1585; and from Barbados in 1654.[2361] According to Renny,[2362] 22,053 cwt. were exported from the West Indies to Spain in 1547.

[2357] Yule, _Book of Ser Marco Polo_, ii. (1871) 316.—See, however, Heyd, _Levantehandel_, II. (1879) 601.

[2358] See Appendix.

[2359] Marinus Sanutus, _Liber secretorum fidelium crucis_, Hanoviæ (1611) 22.

[2360] Monardes, _Historia de las cosas que se traen de nuestras Indias occidentales_, Sevilla, (1574) 99.

[2361] _Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series_, 1574-1660, Lond. 1860, p. 4; see also pp. 414, 434.

[2362] Renny, _Hist. of Jamaica_, Lond. 1807. 154.

=Description=—Ginger is known in two forms, namely the rhizome dried with its epidermis, in which case it is called _coated_; or deprived of epidermis, and then termed _scraped_ or _uncoated_. The pieces, which are called by the spice-dealers _races_ or _hands_, rarely exceed 4 inches in length, and have a somewhat palmate form, being made up of a series of short, laterally compressed, lobe-like shoots or knobs, the summit of each of which is marked by a depression indicating the former attachment of the leafy stem.

To produce the _uncoated ginger_, which is that preferred for medicinal use, the fresh rhizome is scraped, washed, and then dried in the sun.

Thus prepared, it has a pale buff hue, and a striated, somewhat fibrous surface. It breaks easily, exhibiting a short and farinaceous fracture with numerous bristle-like fibres. When cut with a knife the younger or terminal portion of the rhizome appears pale yellow, soft and amylaceous, while the older part is flinty, hard and resinous.

_Coated ginger_, or that which has been dried without the removal of the epidermis, is covered with a wrinkled, striated brown integument, which imparts to it a somewhat coarse and crude appearance, which is usually remarkably less developed on the flat parts of the rhizome. Internally, it is usually of a less bright and delicate hue than ginger from which the cortical part has been removed. Much of it indeed is dark, horny and resinous.

Ginger has an agreeable aromatic odour with a strong pungent taste.

=Varieties=—Those at present found in the London market are distinguished as _Jamaica_, _Cochin_, _Bengal_, and _African_. The first three are _scraped_ gingers; the last named is a _coated_ ginger, that is to say, it still retains its epidermis. Jamaica Ginger is the sort most esteemed; and next to it the Cochin. But of each kind there are several qualities, presenting considerable variation _inter se_.

Scraped or decorticated ginger is often bleached, either by being subjected to the fumes of burning sulphur, or by immersion for a short time in solution of chlorinated lime. Much of that seen in the grocers’ shops looks as if it had been whitewashed, and in fact is slightly coated with calcareous matter,—either sulphate or carbonate of calcium.[2363]

[2363] Mr. Garside (_Pharm. Journ._ April 18, 1874) found both. We have not observed the carbonate to be used.

=Microscopic Structure=—A transverse section of coated ginger exhibits a brown, horny external layer, about one millimètre broad, separated by a fine line from the whitish mealy interior portion, through the tissue of which numerous vascular bundles and resin-cells are irregularly scattered. The external tissue consists of a loose outer layer, and an inner composed of tabular cells: these are followed by peculiar short prosenchymatous cells, the walls of which are sinuous on transverse section and partially thickened, imparting a horny appearance. This delicate felted tissue forms the striated surface of _scraped ginger_, and is the principal seat of the resin and volatile oil, which here fill large spaces. The large-celled parenchyme which succeeds is loaded with starch, and likewise contains numerous masses of resin and drops of oil. The starch granules are irregularly spherical, attaining at the utmost 40 mkm. Certain varieties of ginger, owing to the starch having been rendered gelatinous by scalding, are throughout horny and translucent. The circle of vascular bundles which separates the outer layers and the central portion is narrow, and has the structure of the corresponding circle or nucleus-sheath in turmeric.

=Chemical Composition=—Ginger contains a volatile oil which is the only constituent of the drug that has hitherto been investigated. By distilling 112 lb. of Jamaica ginger with water in the usual way, we obtained 4½ ounces of this oil, or about ¼ per cent. It is a pale yellow liquid of sp. gr. 0·878, having the peculiar odour of ginger, but not its pungent taste. It dissolves but sparingly in alcohol (0·83); and deviates the ray of polarized light 21°.6 to the left, when examined in a column 50 mm. long. We learn from kind information given us (1878) by Messrs. Schimmel & Co. at Leipzig, that they obtain as much as 2·2 per cent. of oil from good ginger.

The burning taste of ginger is due to a resin which we have not examined, but which well deserves careful analysis. Protocatechuic acid, which is so commonly afforded by resins (see page 243), is also produced by melting the resin of ginger with caustic potash, as shown in 1877 by Stenhouse and Groves.

=Commerce=—Great Britain imported of ginger as follows:—

1868 1869 1870 1871 1872 52,194 cwt. 34,535 cwt. 33,854 cwt. 32,723 cwt. 32,174 cwt.

In 1876 the imports were 62,164 cwt., valued at £169,252.

The drug was received in 1872 thus:—

From Egypt 4,923 cwt. ” Sierra Leone 6,167 ” ” British India 13,310 ” ” British West Indies 7,543 ” ” other countries 231 ” ------ Total 32,174

The shipments from Jamaica during the years 1866 to 1876 varied from 599,786 lb. in 1872 to 1,728,075 in 1867. In 1876 there were exported 1,603,764 lb., valued at £28,882.[2364]

=Uses=—Ginger is an agreeable aromatic and stomachic, and as such is often a valuable addition to other medicines. It is much more largely employed as a condiment than as a drug.

RHIZOMA CURCUMÆ.

_Radix Curcumæ_;[2365] _Turmeric_; F. _Curcuma_; G. _Gelbwurzel_, _Kurkuma_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Curcuma longa_[2366] L.—Turmeric is indigenous to Southern Asia, and is there largely cultivated both on the continent and in the islands.

=History=—Dioscorides mentions an Indian plant as a kind of _Cyperus_ (Κύπειρος) resembling ginger, but having when chewed a yellow colour and bitter taste: probably turmeric was intended. Garcia de Orta (1563), as well as Fragoso (1572), describe turmeric as _Crocus indicus_. A list of drugs sold in the city of Frankfort about the year 1450, names _Curcuma_ along with zedoary and ginger.[2367]

In its native countries, it has from remote times been highly esteemed both as a condiment and a dye-stuff; in Europe, it has always been less appreciated than the allied spices of the ginger tribe. In an inventory of the effects of a Yorkshire tradesman, dated 20th Sept., 1578, we find enumerated—“_x. owncis of turmeracke, x d._”[2368]

[2364] Statist. Abstract (as quoted p. 633, note 3), p. 71.

[2365] _Curcuma_ from the Persian _kurkum_, a name applied also to saffron. The origin of the word _Turmeric_ is not known to us; _Terra merita_ seems to be a corruption of it.

[2366] Fig. in Bentley and Trimen’s _Med. Plants_,