Also 7–8 -eth. [Pg., ad. Hind., Pers. zerunbād.] An East Indian plant of the genus Curcuma, or its aromatic root, used, like the allied CASSUMUNAR and ZEDOARY, as a tonic drug.
[1555. Eden, Decades (Arb.), 269. Of the Apothecaries drugges: And of what price they are in Calicut and Malabar…. Zerumba, the farazuola Fanan ii. Zedoaria, the farazuola Fanan i.]
1662. J. Davies, trans. Mandelslo’s Trav., II. 151. The Zerumbet … likewise growes in these parts, and is like to ginger.
1694. Phil. Trans., XVIII. 278. Kua or Zerumbeth of our Shops, a Species of Ginger.
1712. trans. Pomet’s Hist. Drugs, I. 33. The Zedoary is the long Part of the Plant, serving as a root to the Zerumbeth.
1861. Bentley, Man. Bot., 668. The so-called Cassumunar roots, Zedoary roots, and Zerumbet roots of commerce.
