FAMILY

ZINGIBERACEAE
Course incharge: Dr.Mehwish Khan
FAMILY ZINGIBERACEAE
 Distribution of Zingiberaceae:
 Zingiberaceae consists of 49 genera and
about 1300 species, out of which about
17 genera and 115 species have been
reported from India. The measure of
family are distributed through the
eastern hemisphere, particularly in Indo-
Malayan area.
Economic Importance of Zingiberaceae:

 1. Food:
 The commercial ginger (H. Adarak) is prepared from the
aromatic creeping, thick jointed branching root-stocks of
Zingiber officinale. The ginger is used as spice & in perfumary.
 The turmeric (H. Haldi) is obtained from rhizomes of Curcuma
longa and curcuma domestica and used as spice.
 Elettaria cardamomum yields cordamon or Chhoti-Elayachi is
a valuable condiment Amomum subulatum (H. Bari-elaychi)
also yields a valuable condiment and spice.
 2. Medicinal:
 The powder of Curcuma longa is applied externally in sprains
and wounds. It is used in many Ayurvedic medicines. Zingiber
officinale are Elettaria cardamomum are used in medicine –
as carminative. Zeodary is used as tonic.
 3. Perfume:
 Zingiber officinale, Elettaria. spps, Abir –
a scented powder obtained from roots
stock of Hedychium spicatum.
 4. Ornamental:
 Costus, Globba, Hedychium coronatum,
Alpinia, Brachychilum, Roscoea etc. are
cultivated in gardens and green houses
for decorative purposes.
GINGER

 SCIENTIFIC NAME: Zingiber officinale

 COMMON NAME: Adrak,Saunth
 ENGLISH NAME: Ginger
 BIOLOGICAL SOURCE:
 It is the dried rhizome of Zingiber Officinale
 GEOGRAPHICAL SOURCE:
 Jamaica, South India (Cochin), Africa, Japan
 GENERAL DESCRIPTION:
 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 a meter tall bearing narrow leaf blades.
The inflorescences bear pale yellow with purple flowers and arise
directly from the rhizome on separate shoots.
 HABITAT :
 Ginger grows best in moist, fertile, well drained soil.
 CULTIVATION:
 The plant of ginger is a perennial herb about 1 metre high sympodial
branching rhizome. For cultivation the rhizome is cut into pieces and each
piece containing a bud is planted into trenches in well-drained and loamy
soil in March or April.
 The plant requires about 80 cm rainfalls per year and if rainfall is
inadequate water may be supplied by irrigation. Collection is done in
December or January when the plants wither after flowering period.
Rhizomes are carefully dug out, aerial stems, fibrous roots and buds are
removed.
 They are washed in remove mould and clay attached to them. Rhizome is
peeled on flat surface as well as between the fingers and thoroughly
washed in running water. Drug is then dried completely by keeping in the
sun on mats, which are covered over-nights, and in rainy and cloudy
seasons. If moisture is present, drug may become moldy, after drying it
loses about 70% of its weight.
 MACROSCOPICAL CHARACTERS:
 (i) General appearance: Sympodial branching, horizontal rhizome.
 (ii) Size – Length 5-15 cm; width (height) 3 to 6 cm; thickness 0.5 to 1.5
cm.
 (iii) Shape – Laterally flattened on the upper side with short flattened
oblique, obviate branches or fingers. Each branch is 1 to 3 cm long and at
its apex shows a depresses scar of the stem.
 (iv) Surface – Longitudinally striated with occasional projecting fibres.
 (v) Fracture – Short, starchy, fibrous.
 (vi) Fractured surface – Show a narrow bark, a well-marked endodermis
and a wide stele, showing numerous scattered grayish points (fibro
vascular bundles) and smaller yellowish points (secretion cells).
 (vii) Colour – Buff.
 (viii) Odour – Agreeable and aromatic.
 (ix) Taste – Agreeable and aromatic.

 CHEMICAL CONSTITUENTS:


 An oily liquid comprising of homomlogous phenols

called gingerol (cardiotonic compounds) accounts for the pungency
as well as the pharmcological activity of ginger. Gingerols upon
dehydration form shogaols and further degrade to zingerone.
 Apart from the gingerols ginger constitutes of 50-70%
carbohydrates present as starch, 3-8% lipids which includes free
fatty acids like linoleic, linolenic, palmitic, oleic, capric, lauric and
myristic, triglycerides and lecithins. The resinous matter
constitutes 5-8% and volatile oil around 1-2% of the constituents in
ginger. The aroma of ginger is mainly due to oil of ginger which
contains a mixture of over 50 constituents. Volatile oils consist
mainly of the sesiquiterpenes (β-besabolene and zingiberene),
monoterpenes (β-phelandrene, cineol, borneol, citral) and the
sesquiterpene alcohol zingiberol.
 MEDICINAL USES:
 Ginger is used as an anti-emetic and it has been proposed that the aromatic,
carminative and possibly absorbent properties of ginger improve the effects of
motion sickness directly in the GI tract unlike the anithistamines. It also is
effective in the control of vomiting and nausea in hyperemesis gravidarum as
well as postoperative nausea and vomiting.
 The cardiovascular activity shown by ginger is mainly due to the gingerols and
shogaols. The proposed mechanism for these activities is due to the inhibition of
prostaglandin synthetase thus hampering prostaglandin biosynthesis by the
gingerols.
 Ginger also has antiplatelet aggregation property which is due to the inhibition
of thromboxane synthesis.
 Ginger also lowers cholesterol levels by inhibition of
cholesterol biosynthesis under the assumption of inhibiting HMGCoA reductase.
 Ginger also possess antitussive, anti pyretic and analgesic effects.
 Ginger rhizome also has been reported to have fungicidal, antibacterial and
anthelmintic properties.
 Sesquiterpene hydrocarbons are responsible for the anti- ulcer activity.
 ADVERSE EFFECTS:
 Ginger in high doses can cause CNS
depression or cause hindrance with
cardiovascular activity.
 DOSING
 Ginger has been used in clinical trials in
dosages of 170 mg to 1 g 3 to 4 times daily.
Essential oils of ginger have been administered
as aromatherapy for postoperative and
chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting.

CURCUMA
 FAMILY: Zingiberaceae
 SCIENTIFIC NAME: curcuma longa
 LOCAL NAME: Turmeric or Indian saffron or Haldi
 HABITAT: Curcuma Longa is a tropical plant, and it grows in a humid warm weather
with a lot of rainfall. Appropriate temperature for Turmeric is between 20 °C and 30
°C (68 °F and 86 °F) .
 BIOLOGICAL SOURCE:
 It is the dried rhizomes of Curcuma longa
 GEOGRAPHICAL SOURCE:
 Pakistan, India, Malaysia and China
 GENERAL DESCRIPTION:
 It is a perennial herbaceous plant, mostly cultivated in the tropical parts of the India
is
 a native of the Indo-Malayan region; It is vegetatively propagated by the mode of
their
 rhizomes. The plant height is around 55 -85 cm. with a short stem. It has large
leaves approx. 1 meter long. Leaves are petiolate, oblong, lanceolate, with blade up
to 52 cm long and 8.5 cm wide. Flowers originate during June – Nov. on a spike (12-
15 cm long) are yellow white in colour at the middle tufts of the leaf.
 CULTIVATION:
 Warm and humid climate is better for the cultivation of the Curcuma longa
 Linn. The plant is grown in September to October. Light black, black clay, and
 sandy soils are suitable for the plant. The small rhizomes with one or two buds are
planted 4 - 8 cm deep in soil by making distance from plant to plant and bed to bed
also.
 The distance between two beds should be around 55 - 60 cm and plant to plant
distance 20 - 25 cm.

 ORGANOLEPTIC CHARACTERS:
 Colour:
 External – Yellowish to yellowish-brown
 Internal – Yellowish-orange to orange
 Odour : Characteristic
 Taste : Slightly bitter
 Size : 2 to 5 cm in length &1 to 2 cm in
 thickness
 Shape : Ovate or oblong
 STORING OF RHIZOMES :
 – After harvesting of the rhizomes are dried in sunlight and
stored in dry places to avoid bud initiation.

 CHEMICAL CONSTITUENTS:

 - The rhizomes contain curcuminoids, curcumin,

cyclocurcumin, bis- demethoxycurcumin etc.
 Turmeric oil contains
 Turmerone
 Zingiberene
 Borneol
 Caprylic acid
 MEDICINAL VALUES:
 It is used for cough and cold, inflammation
and wound healing, swelling, insect stings,
 Headache, wounds, internal injuries, Pain
killer, pimples, skin problem, Anti –bacterial,
Digestive, Anti-cancerous property etc.

 OTHER USES:
 This plant is also used as flavor, dye and
cosmetics etc.