Definition of "zedoary" []

• An Indian plant (Curcuma zedoaria) having yellow flowers, purple bracts, and starchy tuberous rhizomes. (noun)
• The dried rhizomes of this plant, used as a condiment and in perfumes, medicines, and cosmetics. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "They used many spices, some of which we no longer use (zedoary, long pepper), others of which today are associated with ethnic cuisine (such as galangal, an important ingredient of Thai cooking)."
• "It was made of a mixture of roots of zedoary similar to ginger, lovage and peony, parsnip seeds, mistletoe, myrrh, castor oil and dried millipedes steeped in mugwort tea and brandy."
• "The other contains prepared herbs which are useful as preventives -- tormentil, valerian, zedoary, angelica, and so forth; but I take it that pure vinegar is as good an antidote to infection as anything one can find."