GINGER BENEFITS...

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GINGER IS WONDERFUL FOR SO MANY THINGS....

by Ray Sahelian, M.D.

Ginger and Osteoarthritis

A highly purified and standardized ginger extract had a

statistically significant effect on reducing symptoms of

osteoarthritis of the knee. This effect was moderate. There was a

good safety profile, with mostly mild GI adverse events in the

ginger extract group.

Ginger is a Blood Thinner

Gingerols, the active components of ginger, represent a potential

new class of platelet activation inhibitors. Administration of 50 gm

of fat to 30 healthy adult volunteers decreased fibrinolytic

activity from a mean of 64 to 52 units. Supplementation of 5 gm of

ginger powder with fatty meal not only prevented the fall in

fibrinolytic activity but actually increased it significantly. This

fibrinolytic enhancing property is a further addition to the

therapeutic potential of ginger.

Ginger and Pregnancy

Ginger is effective for relieving the severity of nausea and

vomiting of pregnancy. Using ginger to quell morning sickness does

not appear to raise the risk of birth defects.

Ginger as an Antioxidant

Ginger significantly lowered lipid peroxidation by maintaining the

activities of the antioxidant enzymes -- superoxide dismutase,

catalase and glutathione peroxidase in rats. The blood glutathione

content was significantly increased in ginger fed rats. Similar

effects were also observed after natural antioxidant ascorbic acid

(100 mg/kg, body wt) treatment. The results indicate that ginger is

comparatively as effective as ascorbic acid as an antioxidant.

Ginger also protects tissues from radiation damage.

Ginger summary

Ginger has many benefits, including lessening of nausea, and modern

medicine has not taken advantage of this plant's potential.

Ginger Extract

Ginger is sold by raw material suppliers in various extracts,

including 5% Gingerol.

Ginger Research Update

Ginger appears to help pregnant women who suffer from morning

sickness, without side effects to the unborn child, according to a

review of the medical literature. In six studies that examined the

effects of ginger in reducing nausea and vomiting in expecting

mothers, ginger worked better than a placebo, or inactive drug, and

as well as Vitamin B6, which has been shown to improve nausea and

vomiting in some pregnant women. None of the women who took ginger

had problems with their pregnancies, the authors report in the

journal Obstetrics & Gynecology.

Effect of a ginger extract on pregnancy-induced nausea: a randomised

controlled trial.

Willetts KE. University of New South Wales, Royal Hospital for

Women, Randwick, New South Wales, Australia.

To investigate the effect of a ginger extract (EV.EXT35) on the

symptoms of morning sickness. The participants included 120 women

less than 20 weeks pregnant, who had experienced morning sickness

daily for at least a week and had had no relief of symptoms through

dietary changes. Random allocation of 125 mg ginger extract

(equivalent to 1.5 g of dried ginger) or placebo given four times

per day for 4 days. RESULTS: The nausea experience score was

significantly less for the ginger extract group relative to the

placebo group after the first day of treatment and this difference

was present for each treatment day. Retching was also reduced by the

ginger extract although to a lesser extent. No significant effect

was observed on vomiting. Follow-up of the pregnancies revealed

normal ranges of birthweight, gestational age, Apgar scores and

frequencies of congenital abnormalities when the ginger group

infants were compared to the general population of infants born at

the Royal Hospital for Women for the year 1999-2000. CONCLUSION:

Ginger can be considered as a useful treatment option for women

suffering from morning sickness.

Ginger (Zingiber officinale Rosc.), a dietary supplement, protects

mice against radiation-induced lethality: mechanism of action.

Cancer Biother Radiopharm. 2004 Aug;19(4):422-35.

The radioprotective effect of hydroalcoholic extract of ginger

rhizome (Zingiber officinale) was studied in mice administered 250

mg/kg ginger extract orally using oral gavage once daily for 5

consecutive days before exposure to gamma-radiation. The animals

were monitored daily up to 30 days postirradiation for the

development of symptoms of radiation sickness and mortality.

Pretreatment of mice with ginger reduced the severity of symptoms of

radiation sickness and mortality at all the exposure doses and also

increased the number of survivors in a ginger + irradiation group

compared to the concurrent double-distilled water + irradiation

group. The ginger treatment protected mice against gastrointestinal-

related deaths as well as bone-marrow-related deaths. The mechanism

of action of ginger was determined by evaluating its free-radical

scavenging capability. Ginger was found to scavenge *OH, O2*- and

ABTS*+ radicals in a dose-dependent manner in vitro. Ginger was

nontoxic up to a dose of 1500 mg/kg body weight, the highest drug

dose that could be tested for acute toxicity.

Influence of Ginger Rhizome (Zingiber officinale Rosc) on Survival,

Glutathione and Lipid Peroxidation in Mice after Whole-Body Exposure

to Gamma Radiation.

Radiat Res. 2003 Nov;160(5):584-92.

Department of Radiobiology, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal 576

119, India.

The radioprotective effect of the hydroalcoholic extract of ginger

rhizome was studied. Mice were given 10 mg/kg ginger

intraperitoneally once daily for five consecutive days before

exposure to 6-12 Gy of gamma radiation and were monitored daily up

to 30 days postirradiation for the development of symptoms of

radiation sickness and mortality. Pretreatment of mice with ginger

reduced the severity of radiation sickness and the mortality at all

doses. The ZOE treatment protected mice from GI syndrome as well as

bone marrow syndrome. The dose reduction factor for ginger was found

to be 1.15. The optimum protective dose of 10 mg/kg ginger was (1)

(50) of the LD(50) (500 mg/kg). Irradiation of the animals resulted

in a dose-dependent elevation in the lipid peroxidation and

depletion of GSH on day 31 postirradiation; both effects were

lessened by pretreatment with ginger. Ginger also had a dose-

dependent antimicrobial activity against Pseudomonas aeruginosa,

Salmonella typhimurium, Escherichia coli and Candida albicans.

Dietary ginger constituents, galanals A and B, are potent apoptosis

inducers in Human T lymphoma Jurkat cells.

Cancer Lett. 2003 Sep 25;199(2):113-9.

The effects of the constituents isolated from ginger species

including curcumin, 6-gingerol and labdane-type diterpene compounds

on cell proliferation and the induction of apoptosis in the cultured

human T lymphoma Jurkat cells were studied. Among the tested

compounds, Galanals A and B, isolated from the flower buds of a

Japanese ginger, myoga (Zingiber mioga Roscoe), showed the most

potent cytotoxic effect. Exposure of Jurkat human T-cell leukemia

cells to galanals resulted in the induction of apoptotic cell death

characterized by DNA fragmentation and caspase-3 activation. In

conclusion, the results from this study provide biological evidence

that ginger-specific constituents other than curcuminoids are

potential anticancer agents.

Effect of Zingiber Officinale Rosc ( ginger ) on lipid peroxidation

in hyperlipidemia rats

Wei Sheng Yan Jiu. 2003 Jan;32(1):22-3.

School of Food Science, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin

150030, China.

Zingiber Officinale Rosc (ginger) is the food of rhizoma species as

well as Chinese traditional medicine and has various pharmacological

effects. The last researches showed that ginger not only reduced

plasma lipid levels but also the mouse atherosclerotic lesion areas.

The ginger antioxidative effect maybe pay an important role in

attenuation of development of atherosclerosis. Antioxidative effect

of ginger on hyperlipidemia rats have been studied and the changes

of GSH-Px and LPO in their blood have been observed in this paper.

Male adult Wistar rats were grouped into control, preventive and

curative teams. The experimental teams were respectively fed on the

test diet containing 2% ginger and 5% ginger, in order to measure

the changes of plasma lipid peroxides (LPO) and glutathione (GSH-Px)

after the experiment. The results show that ginger increased GSH-Px

and reduced LPO in the rats' blood. Ginger could inhibit and/or

scavenge radicals of rat body in different degrees.

Anti-tumor-promoting activities of selected pungent phenolic

substances present in ginger.

J Environ Pathol Toxicol Oncol. 1999;18(2):131-9.

Ginger (Zingiber officinale Roscoe, Zingiberaceae) has been widely

used as a dietary spice, as well as in traditional oriental

medicine. The rhizome of ginger contains pungent vanillyl ketones,

including [6]-gingerol and [6]-paradol, and has been reported to

possess a strong anti-inflammatory activity. These pungent

substances have a vanilloid structure found in other chemopreventive

phytochemicals, including curcumin. In our study, we found anti-

tumor-promoting properties of [6]-gingerol and [6]-paradol. Taken

together, these findings suggest that pungent vanilloids found in

ginger possess potential chemopreventive activities.