The origin of ginger has not yet been determined, but the more recognized place of origin is southern Asia. Southern China and Indonesia and India may have been the center of ginger's origin. Currently, these areas still have the largest area of ginger cultivation in the world.
Because the origin of ginger is mostly tropical rainforest area, the climate is warm, humid, relatively weak light, which makes ginger formed like warmth, intolerance of cold, adaptability and other characteristics, now has been widely cultivated in the world's tropical and subtropical regions, and are arranged in the warm season production.
But since no wild species of ginger has been found so far, the exact origin of ginger is still in dispute. From the point of view of the distribution and biological characteristics of ginger, generally tend to ginger originated in the warmer mountainous regions of Asia. According to the current research on the origin of ginger there are mainly the following three inferences:
One is, the Southeast Asian origin. Now the vegetable plants are evolved from the wild species, is after a long period of human cultivation and selection, only to become the current state of cultivation and fine varieties. 100 years, for the origin of cultivated plants have had a lot of discussion, which the Soviet Union, the famous agronomist and geneticist N.I. Vavilov in 1923-1931, the organization of a team of expedition to carry out a global expedition, according to Vavilov, the origin of ginger. The famous Soviet agronomist and geneticist N.I. Vavilov organized a global expedition from 1923 to 1931, and according to the "gene center theory" put forward by Vavilov, he believed that there were eight centers of origin of the world's cultivated plants, and classified the origin of ginger as the Indo-Malayan center, which included the whole Southeast Asian region such as India, Burma, the Malay Peninsula, Java, Borneo (now Kalimantan) and the Philippines. and the Philippines throughout Southeast Asia, but in places like India and the Malay Peninsula it is rare to see ginger able to flower, whereas it can be easily wildcrafted in East Java, where the climate is quite suitable for the growth and development of ginger, and which can perhaps be considered to be the origin of ginger (Burkill, 1935).
The second one is, the origin of China's Yunnan-Guizhou and western plateau area. In the book "History of the Development of Cultivated Plants in China", Lieven pointed out that the influence of geographical reasons on the center of origin of cultivated plants could not be ignored, and believed that China's natural environment was "unique", and that cultivated plants grown in the western plateau could reach the limit of the world's altitude, and that in the vast plain and hilly areas in the southeast and northeast of China, the climate was warm, and that the cultivated plants in the highland areas in the west and northeast of China could reach the limit of the world's height. The vast plains and hills in its southeast and northeast, warm climate, abundant rainfall, and thus envisioned, the original Tibetan Plateau, Northwest Plateau, Southwest Plateau and Loess Plateau linked together to form a terrain from the Tibetan Plateau to the east gradually lower the terrain of the stepped plateau, the climate at different altitudes is not the same, to the plains and valleys, and some of the climate is close to, or even more than, the subtropical. In ancient times, there are lush primeval forests and vast grasslands, so it can be believed that the vast plateau of western China is the hometown of China's cultivated plants. At the same time, in the botanical arguments Lieven put forward in China's southern mountainous distribution of a so-called ball ginger, in the subtropical (eastern) forest areas of Tibet is also distributed in the wild plants of the ginger family, like ginger and pungent flavor is lighter, the whole plant can be eaten. From this inference, it is likely to be cultivated ginger wild primitive species. Therefore, it is believed that the origin of ginger should be in the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau and the vast plateau area in the west of China.
Third, the origin of China's Yangtze River Basin, Yellow River Basin said. South China Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wu De A study that: the origin of ginger cultivation may be the Yellow River Basin and Yangtze River Basin area between China's ancient times, the main arguments are as follows:
First, from the historical data, China's long history of ginger planting, as early as in the ancient book of "the Analects of Confucius - the countryside party," there is Confucius "not withdraw ginger food! In fact, the history of ginger planting is much earlier than the written records. Ginger as medicine, also has a long history. The tube - the ground member of the chapter "is the work of the Warring States period, which has" group of drugs Ansheng, ginger and Platycodonopsis, small Xin, Damon "record, after the Warring States records about ginger is more. Literature and historical data show that ginger in China has a long history of cultivation, and before the Spring and Autumn and Warring States, our country and India, Indonesia and so on have no interaction, it is not possible to import from these countries, so that ginger should be China's origin.
Secondly, from the cultural relics, in the archaeological remains of ginger, such as hubei jiangling chu tomb was unearthed in the shape of complete ginger; Hunan Changsha Mawangdui tomb also unearthed ginger, the history of its cultural relics are in zhangqian mission to the west, also in our country and India before the dealings, so the cultural relics can be used as a supportive evidence of China's cultivation of ginger since ancient times.
Third, etymological evidence, Tackholm has claimed that the word Zingiber is translated from Chinese characters, rather than from Indian Sanskrit "Sringavera", Zingiber this word is very likely to be the Persian traders will be the Chinese words " The word Zingiber is most likely a Persian trader's translation of the Chinese word "姜" (juyinche) with the native word "bil". If the Greek word "Zingiberi" and the later Latin word "Zingiber" are directly derived from the Chinese language, this is meaningful etymological evidence for the study of the origin of ginger.
In addition, from the analysis of the ancient climate conditions, the ancient Yellow River Basin is densely forested, the climate is warm and humid. 3,000 years ago, the Yellow River Basin, like today's Yangtze River Basin, has a very rich subtropical animal and plant species, there may be the distribution of the wild ginger, but only later due to the cold climate, the forest has been destroyed, so that this kind of warm, humid and need to be grown in the shade of the understory plants lost their natural survival. The understory plants lost the natural survival conditions, and thus gradually disappeared, so until now can not find the wild ginger, left behind only people cultivated under the conditions of the ginger.
On the exact origin of ginger, although so far there is no conclusive evidence, but broadly speaking, the origin of ginger is in the tropical and subtropical regions of Asia, seems to have been recognized.