Ginger comes from the family of Zingiberaceae, its the family of calamus and sword lilly too.
The french name is gingimbre, the german name is: Ingwer, the italian name is zenzero, in spanish its jengibre, the malay call it djahé, the hindi sont adrak and the chinese call it Sheng Jiang.
When the leaves wilt, the fleshy sticks are grubbed up; these give the soft, fragrant fresh green ginger, the ginger that is preserved in sugar. The dried, bleached and bruised roots, however, have the strongest aroma.
The name can be traced back to the Sanskrit word 'shringavera' in almost all languages, which means 'shaped like a heret horn'. The Latin name is a combination of the Greek ziggiberis and the Latin gingiber.
This herb is widely used in all Asian parts in the kitchen, it has a sharp and penetrating taste that becomes milder when you bake or cook it.
There are many different kinds of ginger, all of which are used for the production of essential oil; the African oil is somewhat darker in color. The oil iss extracted from the roots, using steam distillation.
The oil is very yellowish to orange and very viscous, you can see on the pic how it colored the top of my bottle of ginger oil, which, by the way, is a CO2 oil instead of an essential oil; in some cases i prefer the CO2.
The scent experience is strong, spicy, very spicy, a little lemon, and a little sweet, quite present. The smell works immediately on my salivary glands and goes to the stomach.
If you ever experience cold feet in winter, or when you are ' cold to the marrow' from the flu – take a 20 minute foothbath with just a table spoon of ginger powder into warm water – you will experience a deep warming, it litterally feels as if it warms your bones.
The 20 % monoterpenes make ginger an inflammation inhibiting oil; stimulating and tonic
The over 50% sesquiterpenes makes this oil slightly blood pressure lowering, calming, inflammatory, regenerating, anti-hystamic and immune stimulating, as are most essential oils.
The direct effect of it on the limbic system is that it stabilizes emotional extremes, it calms the system and gives comfort in weakness and mental exhaustion
This oil is very suited for rheumatic diseases, and all chronic joint pain, since those infectional processes turn into a ‘cold pain’ when they get chronical, otherwise its not wise to work with heating oils when there is infection.
Today i baked a cake with ginger powder, amongst others (vanilla, cinnamum, anise, etc.). I love that with a coffee in the morning.
Wishing all of you a 'smelly Sunday' and don't forget: Sundays are to Steem some #Scent
