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Ginger (Zingiber officinale) is a flowering plant whose rhizome, ginger root or ginger, is widely used as a spice and a folk medicine. It is a herbaceous perennial which grows annual pseudostems (false stems made of the rolled bases of leaves) about one meter tall, bearing narrow leaf blades. The inflorescences bear flowers having pale yellow petals with purple edges, and arise directly from the rhizome on separate shoots. Ginger is in the family Zingiberaceae, which also includes turmeric (Curcuma longa), cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum), and galangal. Ginger originated in Maritime Southeast Asia and was likely domesticated first by the Austronesian peoples. It was transported with them throughout the Indo-Pacific during the Austronesian expansion (5,000 BP), reaching as far as Hawaii. Ginger is one of the first spices to have been exported from Asia, arriving in Europe with the spice trade, and was used by ancient Greeks and Romans. The distantly related dicots in the genus Asarum are commonly called wild ginger because of their similar taste. Although used in traditional medicine and as a dietary supplement, there is no good evidence that consuming ginger or its extracts has any effect on human health or as a treatment for diseases. In 2019, world production of ginger was 4.1 million tonnes, led by India with 44% of the world total. The English origin of the word "ginger" is from the mid-14th century, from Old English gingifer, which derives in turn from the Medieval Latin gingiber, gingiber from the Greek ζιγγίβερις zingiberis from the Prakrit (Middle Indic) siṅgabera, and siṅgabera from the Sanskrit śṛṅgavera. The Sanskrit word is thought to come from an ancient Dravidian word that also produced the Tamil and Malayalam term iñci-vēr (from vēr, "root"); an alternative explanation is that the Sanskrit word comes from srngam, meaning "horn", and vera, meaning "body" (describing the shape of its root), but that may be folk etymology. The word probably was readopted in Middle English from the Old French gingibre (modern French gingembre).

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Ginger