You might have noticed that Inji, the Malayalam word for Ginger has a striking similarity to the English pronunciations of Ginger! Ginger, like Turmeric is an amazing plant migrated from its original location, deep rain forests of Western Ghats in South India to all over the world. India continues to have incredible varieties of Ginger plants. How Ginger became part of Human beings, when we started to use, and how different traditions all over the world have and continue to use it in making food and medicine is worth exploring. In Ayurveda, where food and medicine is one and the same, Ginger occupies an important position. Many ancient medical texts from India and China have extensive description about the plant , its powers of healing physical body and how it helps us to be live healthy and happy to become part of a greater consciousness of food , Ananda.
In Ayurvedic foundational treatises composed by great seers like Charaka, Sushrutha, and Vaghbhada have explained the many medicinal and culinary uses and how it is a vehicle for human beings to reach the state of Ananda when all the physical matters that constitute our physical body dance in happiness.
We are yet to grow our own Ginger Plant , though we are being blessed by the birth of few plants of Turmeric. We felt happy and proud to be part of upstate Farmers markets where our neighbor vendors sell the beautiful whole fresh green plants and people walk around happily. Carrie and me made some awesome drinks from the leaves and stems and I also used it cooking , some meat dishes.
It is a big relief for me as a cook when occasions of NOT handling Ginger made from Chinese farms. Some of them smell so bad and rot quickly. It looks big and beautiful a kind of designed vegetable. I don't know whether such Ginger has any of the healing qualities of naturally grown Ginger, for which it became part of human beings.
I read this recently , According to a book published in Malayalam by National Language Institute , Government Kerala authored by Suresh Muthukulam, titled as Sugandha Sasyangal, aromatic oil plants
Ginger is a valuable food and medicine for
1.Excellent aid for good digestion particularly good at times of stomach gas troubles, constipation, stomach swelling, lack of appetite. Raw rhizome or cooked with any meal or drink .
2. Food poisoning : Drinking fresh Ginger juice is advised in regain the balance of the body from poisoning.
3. Ginger drink help to stopping Omitting, thirstiness and bad taste in mouth
4. Ginger is used as a cure for Yellow fever and Malaria.
5.Common flu, running nose, asthma, bronchitis, and any difficulties in breathing fresh or dry Ginger can be used to stop the growth of microbes which causes the imbalances.
6. Ginger is a great pain reliever particularly in joints, head ache, arthritis ,
7. Ginger is a great medicine which helps heart to maintain its natural balance
8.Ginger Oil has intense power to heal depression, mental pressures, a natural mood elevator , and anxieties
9. Ginger is a medicine used to heal stones in Kidney's
10.Ginger fresh paste applied on hair can get rid of bad creatures from head
We sincerely wish that those who used and those who presently enjoying Inji Puli may receive all the powers for which it is naturally born for. Carrie and me would dream of a day when we can make Inji Puli from local local American farms.
