Ginger

(Zingiber officinale)

Other Names:
Ginger root

Range:


Family:
Zingiberaceae - The Ginger Family

Parts Used:
Rhizome

Culinary Uses:
Ginger is used as a flavoring or spice in many Asian dishes. It has also gained widespread favor among western palates. It can be added to smoothies, curries, stir-fries, as well as various sauces.

Energetics
Taste: Pungent
Thermal: Heating
Humidity: Drying

Traditional Medicinal Uses:
Ginger has been used in Ayurvedic medicine for centuries. It is used to treat arthritis, colds and flu, inflammation, infections, heart problems, inflammation, menstrual cramps, migraines, morning sickness, nausea, pain, sore throats, stomach flu, and vomiting.

This plant has been shown, by scientific studies, to be effective for the treatment of the following conditions. The fact that studies concerning all traditional uses listed above have not yet been completed, does not mean said uses are invalid. The plants I have included have a long history of effective use, and most were part of the U.S. Pharmacopia prior to the rise of allopathic medicine.

Dyslipidemia: Daniels, Chelsea Courtney, Zaiyaan Isaacs, Renata Finelli, and Kristian Leisegang. "The efficacy of Zingiber officinale on dyslipidaemia, blood pressure, and inflammation as cardiovascular risk factors: A systematic review." Clinical Nutrition ESPEN 51 (2022): 72-82.

Dysmenorrhea (Menstrual cramps): Chen, Chen X., Bruce Barrett, and Kristine L. Kwekkeboom. "Efficacy of oral ginger (Zingiber officinale) for dysmenorrhea: a systematic review and meta‐analysis." Evidence‐Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine 2016, no. 1 (2016): 6295737.

Dyspepsia (Indigestion): Attari, Vahideh Ebrahimzadeh, Mohammad Hosein Somi, Mohammad Asghari Jafarabadi, Alireza Ostadrahimi, Seyed-Yaghob Moaddab, and Neda Lotfi. "The gastro-protective effect of ginger (Zingiber officinale Roscoe) in Helicobacter pylori positive functional dyspepsia." Advanced Pharmaceutical Bulletin 9, no. 2 (2019): 321.

Emesis Gravidarum (Morning sickness): Betriani, Medicine. "The Effectiveness of Zingiber Officinale (Ginger) Infused Water for Pregnant Women with Emesis Gravidarum." Open Access Jakarta Journal of Health Sciences 2, no. 6 (2023): 746-753.

Hyperlipidemia (high cholesterol): Abdul Qudoos, Abdul Qudoos, Khazlid Nia Khazlid Nia, Shahina Hakro Shahina Hakro, and Shah Murad Shah Murad. "Single blind placebo-controlled study on comparision of effects of Zingiber officinale before and after treatment in hyperlipidemia." (2016): 90-92.

Hypertension (High blood pressure): Sanghal, Akhil, K. K. Pant, S. M. Natu, A. Nischal, S. Khattri, and Rajendra Nath. "An experimental study to evaluate the preventive effect of Zingiber officinale (ginger) on hypertension and hyperlipidaemia and its comparison with Allium sativum (garlic) in rats." Journal of medicinal plants research 6, no. 25 (2012): 4231-4238.

Inflammation: Daniels, Chelsea Courtney, Zaiyaan Isaacs, Renata Finelli, and Kristian Leisegang. "The efficacy of Zingiber officinale on dyslipidaemia, blood pressure, and inflammation as cardiovascular risk factors: A systematic review." Clinical Nutrition ESPEN 51 (2022): 72-82.

Kinetosis (Motion sickness): Moghaddasi, Mohammad Sharrif, and Hamed Haddad Kashani. "Ginger (Zingiber officinale): A review." Journal of Medicinal Plants Research 6, no. 26 (2012): 4255-4258.

Migraine: Mustafa, T., and K. C. Srivastava. "Ginger (Zingiber officinale) in migraine headache." Journal of Ethnopharmacology 29, no. 3 (1990): 267-273.

Maghbooli M, Golipour F, Moghimi Esfandabadi A, Yousefi M. Comparison between the efficacy of ginger and sumatriptan in the ablative treatment of the common migraine. Phytother Res. 2014 Mar;28(3):412-5. doi: 10.1002/ptr.4996. Epub 2013 May 9. PMID: 23657930.

Osteoarthritis: Haghighi, Masoud, Ali Khalvat, Tayebeh Toliat, and S. H. Jallaei. "Comparing the effects of ginger (Zingiber officinale) extract and ibuprofen on patients with osteoarthritis." (2005): 267-271.

Rheumatoid Arthritis: Al-Nahain, Abdullah, Rownak Jahan, and Mohammed Rahmatullah. "Zingiber officinale: A potential plant against rheumatoid arthritis." Arthritis 2014, no. 1 (2014): 159089.

Medicinal Actions:
Analgesic, Anodyne, Anthelmintic, Antihypertensive, Anti-Inflammatory, Antimicrobial, Antiparasitic, Antipruritic, Antispasmodic, Carminative, Diaphoretic, Expectorant, Lipolytic

This plant has been shown, by scientific studies, to exibit the following medicinal actions. The fact that studies concerning all of the traditional medicinal actions listed above have not yet been completed, does not mean said actions are invalid. The plants I have included have a long history of effective use, and most were part of the U.S. Pharmacopia prior to the rise of allopathic medicine.

Analgesic (Relieves pain): Kravchenko, Iryna, Lidiya Eberle, Mariia Nesterkina, and Alona Kobernik. "Anti-inflammatory and analgesic activity of ointment based on dense ginger extract (Zingiber officinale)." Journal of Herbmed Pharmacology 8, no. 2 (2019): 126-132.

Anthelmintic (Destroys or expels worms from the digestive system): Lin, Rong-Jyh, Chung-Yi Chen, Chin-Mei Lu, Yi-Hsuan Ma, Li-Yu Chung, Jiun-Jye Wang, June-Der Lee, and Chuan-Min Yen. "Anthelmintic constituents from ginger (Zingiber officinale) against Hymenolepis nana." Acta tropica 140 (2014): 50-60.

Anticarcinogenic (Protects against mutagenic cells): Ramakrishnan, Ranjani. "Anticancer properties of Zingiber officinale–Ginger: A review." Int. J. Med. Pharm. Sci 3, no. 5 (2013): 11-20.

Antiemetic (Reduces nausea and vomiting): Phillips, S., Rc Ruggier, and S. E. Hutchinson. "Zingiber officinale (ginger)–an antiemetic for day case surgery." Anaesthesia 48, no. 8 (1993): 715-717.

Antihypertensive (Reduces blood pressure): While this study used Zingiber officinale var. rubrum, Zingiber officinale also contains 10-gingerol, 8-gingerol, 6-gingerol. Lukiati, Betty, Sulisetijono Sulisetijono, Frida Kunti Setiowati, and Anggi Klaritasari. "Potential prediction of phenolic compounds in red ginger (Zingiber officinale var. rubrum) as an AT1R antagonist by bioinformatics approach for antihypertensive oral drug candidates." In AIP Conference Proceedings, vol. 2353, no. 1. AIP Publishing, 2021.

Anti-Inflammatory (Helps the body combat inflammation): Akbar, S. (2020). Zingiber officinale Rosc. (Zingiberaceae). In: Handbook of 200 Medicinal Plants. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16807-0_199

Thomson, M., K. K. Al-Qattan, S. M. Al-Sawan, M. A. Alnaqeeb, I. Khan, and M. Ali. "The use of ginger (Zingiber officinale Rosc.) as a potential anti-inflammatory and antithrombotic agent." Prostaglandins, leukotrienes and essential fatty acids 67, no. 6 (2002): 475-478.

Antimicrobial (Helps the body destroy or resist pathogenic organisms): Bhargava, Shipra, Kshipra Dhabhai, Amla Batra, Asha Sharma, and Bharti Malhotra. "Zingiber officinale: Chemical and phytochemical screening and evaluation of its antimicrobial activities." Journal of chemical and pharmaceutical research 4, no. 1 (2012): 360-364.

Antinociceptive (Reduces the body's response to painful stimuli): Kravchenko, Iryna, Lidiya Eberle, Mariia Nesterkina, and Alona Kobernik. "Anti-inflammatory and analgesic activity of ointment based on dense ginger extract (Zingiber officinale)." Journal of Herbmed Pharmacology 8, no. 2 (2019): 126-132.

Antioxidant (Renders free radicals harmless): Ndagijimana, Andre, M. V. N. L. Chaitanya, S. P. Dhanabal, and Justin N. Kabera. "Phytochemical Review on Ocimum sanctum, Zingiber officinale, Rosamarinus officinalis and Eucalypus globules for their antitussive and antioxidant activities." J. Chem. Pharm. Res 8, no. 5 (2016): 243-250.

Antiparasitic (Expels worms from the digestive system): Choi, WonHyung, MeiHua Jiang, and JongPhil Chu. "Antiparasitic effects of Zingiber officinale (Ginger) extract against Toxoplasma gondii." Journal of Applied Biomedicine 11, no. 1 (2013): 15-26.

Antipyretic (Reduces fever): AMER, M., and Eman S. El-Ashry. "Anti-Inflammatory, Analgesic and Antipyretic Activities of Ginger (Zingiber Officinale)." In Proceedings of the 8th International Scientific Conference, Mansoura, pp. 471-483. 2014.

Antispasmodic (Relieves or reduces spasms, especially in smooth muscle (uterus, intestine, blood vessels, bronchi)): Yassin, Nemat AZ, El-Sayed M. El-Rokh, Siham MA El-Shenawy, and Bassant MM Ibrahim. "The study of the antispasmodic effect of ginger (Zingiber officinale) in vitro." Der Pharmacia Lettre 4, no. 1 (2012): 263-274.

Carminative (Eases the removal of gas): Kabiraj, Amitava, and Rohitas Deshmukh. "A review on chinese herbal medicine used as carminative." Pharmacological Research-Modern Chinese Medicine (2024): 100409.

Diaphoretic (Promotes sweating): Bhowmik, Debjit, K. K. Tripathi, M. R. Chandira, and K. P. Kumar. "Zingiber officinale the herbal and traditional medicine and its therapeutically importance." Research Journal of Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry 2, no. 2 (2010): 102-110.

Expectorant (Helps the body to remove excess mucous from the lungs): Ndagijimana, Andre, M. V. N. L. Chaitanya, S. P. Dhanabal, and Justin N. Kabera. "Phytochemical Review on Ocimum sanctum, Zingiber officinale, Rosamarinus officinalis and Eucalypus globules for their antitussive and antioxidant activities." J. Chem. Pharm. Res 8, no. 5 (2016): 243-250.

Lipolytic (Normalizes lipids in the body): Thomson, M., K. K. Al-Qattan, S. M. Al-Sawan, M. A. Alnaqeeb, I. Khan, and M. Ali. "The use of ginger (Zingiber officinale Rosc.) as a potential anti-inflammatory and antithrombotic agent." Prostaglandins, leukotrienes and essential fatty acids 67, no. 6 (2002): 475-478.