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Several extracts and distillations of ginger plants possess antibacterial, analgesic, sedative, and antipyretic (fever-reducing) medicinal properties. Zingerone, gingerols, and shogaols are the volatile oils (about three percent by weight) responsible for ginger’s fragrance, distinctive taste, and numerous beneficial medicinal properties. More recently, many “root ginger” species that belong to the taxonomic family Zingiberaceae have been found to possess chemical compounds sought after by the pharmaceutical industry. As you might expect, the Hawaiian names for individual species of ginger evolved along a different linguistic line.Īside from being the ideal subjects for amateur photographers (unlike birds and whales, they tend not to move around much), the various species of ginger have long been known for their aromatic properties and as an ingredient in prepared ethnic foods. The English word “ginger” comes to us from the French word “gingimbre” by way of the ancient south Asian words “inji ver” (literally, “the root of Inji” in Dravidian) and “singivera” (Pali), from which the Greek word “zingiberis” and the medieval Latin word “gingiber” probably were derived. Pink variety of Red Ginger ( Alpinia purpurata). It should be no surprise, then, that along with all of the photographs of palm trees and hibiscus, the online photo galleries of recent visitors to our islands are crowded with images of Hawaii’s photogenic ginger species. Now that I’ve been photographing and blogging about Hawaii’s plant life, I’ve grown to appreciate the members of this plant family because of the great variety of their size, form, and color. Despite competition from the usual hordes of gaudy hibiscus and orchid tree blossoms, the plants whose flowers stand alone in that crowd of colorful blossoms and foliage are the different species of the Zingiberaceae Family, or ginger. The enclosed courtyard of my own housing compound is a modest botanical garden that includes tall Coconut Palms, Strangler Figs, banana trees, and many of the flowering bushes and shrubs that grow on Maui. I live on a part of the Island of Maui’s leeward shore that is surrounded by and engulfed in many small private and larger public gardens and parks.