The ginger family is a tropical group consisting of more than 1200 plant species in 53 genera. Commercial ginger, or Zingiber officinale Roscoe is an erect perennial plant consisting of underground stems or rhizomes from which the aerial stem grows up to about 1m high. The rhizome is multibranched, with thick thumb-like protrusions, with individual divisions of the rhizome known as "hands". The rhizomes are aromatic or pungent. Ginger is native to Southern Asia, but it is now extensively cultivated in Jamaica, Nigeria, China, India, Fiji, Sierra Leone and Australia.

The part of the ginger used is the pungent rhizome both in its fresh or dried forms. Its general uses are as a spice, culinary herb, condiment and medicinal agent, but ginger also contains volatile oil (1-2%) extracted by steam distillation, resinous matter (5-8%) extracted with solvents as an oleoresin, starch and mucilage.

Ginger's medicinal properties include its use as an antiemetic (preventing motion sickness), cardiotonic (protecting, stimulating or strengthening the heart), anti-inflammatory agent (preventing inflammation) and analgesic (relieving pain). These properties have been attributed to a component known as gingerol, which is normally extracted in the oleoresin.

Medicinal applications of ginger include its use in the treatment of stomach ache, diarrhea, nausea, minor burns, skin inflammations, colds, vomiting, toothaches, rheumatism, urinary tract infections and many other ailments.

• Cough Suppressant
  1-2 teaspoons of ginger juice .mixed with honey can be taken as a suppressant.


• Masage Oil For Arthritic Aches And Pains
  5 drops of ginger essential oil diluted in 20 drops of carrier oil (such as wheat germ and almond) can be used to massage or soothe minor aches and pains.

Ginger, the underground stem or rhizome of Zingiber officinale Roscoe (Zingiberaceae), is a herbaceous perennial monocotyledon. The rhizome is multi-branched, irregular, fleshy and pungent. It is 'Cultivated extensively in almost all tropical and subtropical countries, especially Australia, Nigeria, Haiti, Jamaica, China and India, the latter two being, the world's leading producers.

Ginger is cultivated in Jamaica mainly in Clarendon, Manchester, St. Ann, Hanover and St. Thomas2 where the topography is steep, soils are of rich clay and temperatures cool. Planting takes place between April and June of each year and harvesting is usually between December and March, when the stalks have withered and dried. Two varieties of ginger are grown in Jamaica, yellow and blue gingers, the latter of which is sub- grouped into frog, bulbous and Chinese blue. The types however have not been properly characterized and as such there is some disagreement on the identity of the blue ginger among farmers.3

International trade in Jamaican ginger has been based mainly in fresh and dried ginger (peeled and unbleached) ~d, to a limited extent, ginger oil and oleoresin. There has been a sharp decline in the trade of the oil and oleoresin in recent times. The effect of the root rot 4isease on the cultivation of the crop has been extensive. To counter this challenge and thus save the industry, some farmers have been issued with disease-free plantlets through the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Agriculture Development Authority (RADA).

With the rapid development of the nutraceuticals and functional foods industries, ginger has begun to enjoy new applications. Nutraceuticals or functional foods are described as any non-toxic food or food ingredient scientifically proven to provide medical or health benefits including the prevention and treatment of diseases. They may range from isolated nutrients, dietary supplements and diets to genetically engineered "designer" foods, herbal products and processed products such as cereals, soups and beverages. The world market for nutraceuticals / functional foods currently stands at US$14 billion and is set to expand to US$200 billion by the year 2005. Ginger contains "actives" which are the basic raw materials required by the essential oils and nutraceuticals industries.

Jamaican ginger has traditionally been recognized as premier among gingers for the quality of its flavour, oil content and appearance, providing the basis on which the standards of other gingers are assessed. However, despite these fine attributes, the huge World Trade in ginger, the growth in World Trade in essential oils and oleoresins and the rapidly expanding market for nutraceuticals, no investigation has been conducted to date to evaluate the differences between the regional varieties of ginger grown in Jamaica.

Ginger contains 0.25 - 3.3% volatile oil, pungent principles (gingerols and shogaols), about 6 - 8% lipids composed of triglycerides, phosphatidic acid, lecithins, free fatty acids (lamic, palmitic, stearic, oleic, linoleic, etc.), proteins (about 9%), starch (up to 50%), vitamins (especially niacin and A), minerals, amino acids, resins, among others.

Some reported medicinal benefits of ginger include its use in Chinese medicine as a digestive aid and anti-nausea remedy, to treat bleeding disorders, rhelm1atism, baldness, diarrhea, respiratory conditions among others. In Ayurveda, traditional medicine of India, ginger has been used to prevent excessive clotting (i.e. heart disease), reduce cholesterol and fight art11ritis. The Malaysians, Indonesians and Arabs have also used ginger as a thermogenic agent (warming the body) and apl1rodisiac. Ginger's effectiveness in treating these various medical conditions has been linked to its active ingredients, gingerols (Figure 1) and shogaols (Figure 2), which have been described as the most pharmacologically active components of ginger. Evidence of their efficacy in health promotion have been illustrated by the numerous clinical and pharmacological studies conducted.

Studies conducted in lab animals found that both gingerols and shogaols have analgesic (shogaols), sedative, anti-pyretic, anti-bacterial and gastro-intestinal motility effects.Io Other investigations show [6]-gingerol to have anti-oxidative, anti-inflammatory and anti-tumour promotional activities.9, 11 The anti-inflammatory properties of gingerols have been linked to the structure, which is said to be similar to capsaicin, a known pain killer/reliever. Gingerols have been found to inhibit the enzyme cyclooxygenase (COX) that causes inflammation.I2 [6]- shogaol was also found to exhibit anti-inflammatory activities.

Ginger has also been found to reduce cholesterol levels by promoting its excretion and impairing its absorption. It was indicated ~hat this cholagogic effect (If ginger was due mainly to [6]- and [10]- gingerols.9, 13 Gingerols have been reported to have potent cardiotonic and thermogenic activities.