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Zingiber officinale

 Zingiber officinale ('Awapuhi Päkë / Ginger)

PLANT NAME: Zingiber officinale Roscoe.

OTHER NAMES: Amomum zingiber L.

COMMON NAMES: 'Awapuhi päkë, 'awapuhi 'ai [Hawai'i]; ginger [English]; sheng jiang (fresh), gan jiang (dry), jiang ye (leaves), jiang pi (cortex) [China]; aduwa, sutho [Nepal]; ardrakah (fresh) [Sanskrit]; fiu [Samoa]; gember [Nederland]; gemeiner ingber / ingwer [Germany]; gengibre / jengibre [Spain]; gingembre [France]; gingimbre [Caribbean]; imbir lekarski [Poland]; ingefær [Denmark & Norway]; jahe [Indonesia]; jengibre [Bolivia]; khing [Thailand]; saenggang [Korea]; sang geung [Canton]; shokyo [Japan]; shringara [Sanskrit]; sukku [India]; sunthi (dried) [Sanskrit]; sunthi (dry), nagara (dry), shingabera, ardakam, ardraka (fresh) [India]; ziggiberis, giggiberi [Greece]; zingiberis [Ancient Greek].

NOMENCLATURE:
• 'Awapuhi is the Hawaiian name for ginger-like plants. Päkë means Chinese. 'Ai means food.
• 'Awapuhi päkë received the name "Zingiber officinale" from the British botanist William Roscoe in 1807. The name "ginger" comes from the Sanskrit "sringa-vera" meaning "horn body," a reference to the shape of the rhizome. This became zingiberis in Greek and gingibar in Latin.
• The Chinese word for ginger is "jiang" and there are numerous characters that have the same pronunciation. Li Zi Shen, the great Chinese herbalist, used a different character (with the same pronunciation "jiang") than others of his day when referring to Ginger: One meaning "boundary" or "border." This may have implied ginger's function of expelling external pathogens, or it may have been a reference to ginger's status as an imported herb. Or maybe he just misspelled it.

FAMILY: Zingiberaceae. The family zingiberaceae claims more than1200 species in 53 genera. There are 85 species in the genus Zingiber.

CATEGORY: Fresh: Warm acrid release the exterior. Dried: Warm the interior.

PROPERTIES:
Fresh rhizome: Acrid warm (fresh rhizome).
Dried rhizome: Acrid hot (dried).
Sprouts: Acrid, neutral [China].

PLANT PART USED: Rhizome.

TOXICITY: Safe at therapeutic doses. The acute oral LD50 in rats of roasted ginger is 170 g / kg. Dry ginger is more than 250 g / kg [Wu 1990]. To put this into an inter-species perspective and extrapolating to humans, a 160 lb man would have to eat about 40 lbs of dried ginger all at once in order to do himself harm.

CAUTIONS AND CONTRAINDICATIONS:
• Caution with gastric ulcers or heartburn [Ody 1993].
• Can aggravate contact dermatitis [Futrell 1993].
• Some studies show a significant reduction in morning sickness when ginger is used [Keating 2002; Lien 2003; Niebyl 1992]. There is no evidence of teratogenic or embryotoxic effects in pregnant mice at doses of 1000 mg / kg [Weidner 2001]. I still try to avoid giving any herbs during pregnancy, although sometimes ginger may be called for with those who have severe morning sickness such as hyperemesis gravidarum. Many practitioners routinely will give up to 1 gram of ginger per day to pregnant women with nausea. If ginger is given during pregnancy, fresh is preferred over dried.

ENERGETIC CAUTIONS: Not with vomiting from stomach heat. Not with lung heat. Practically speaking, however, it can be easily balanced with other herbs. Traditionally not used with gua lou ren or tian hua fen (both Trichosanthes kirilowii).

PREPARATION OF MEDICINE: Infused, decocted, fresh, powdered. Infused to cause a sweat. I almost always prefer fresh ginger to dried. Dried ginger has more "heating" qualities than fresh ginger. Tincture: Fresh 1:2 90% alcohol.

DOSAGE: 1-9g as food or in combination.
For motion sickness: 500 mg dried ginger every half hour, beginning one half hour before travel.

WESTERN FUNCTIONS REPORTED: Adaptogenic; anodyne; anthelmintic; anti-inflammatory; antiallergenic; antibacterial; anticancer; anticarthartic; anti-coagulant; anticonvulsant; antidepressant; anti-diabetic; antifungal; anti-inflammatory; antimicrobial; antimutagenic; antioxidant; antirheumatic; antispasmodic; antithrombic; antitoxic; antitumor; antiulcer; antiviral; aphrodisiac; benefits digestion; carminative; cholinergic (antagonizes adrenergic stimulation); cleanses the throat and tongue; clears mucous from the lungs; cytoprotective; diaphoretic; diuretic; immune supportive; increases bile secretion; increases circulation; increases saliva; increases urination; inhibits prostaglandin biosynthesis; inhibits gastric secretions; inhibits gastric ulcers; kills germs topically; liver protective; lowers blood pressure; lowers fever; normalizes peristalsis; promotes digestion; promotes saliva; reddens the skin; reduces cough; reduces nausea and vomiting; reduces platelet aggregation; reduces serum cholesterol; reduces spasm; removes obstructions in the vessels; rubefacient; serotonergic enhancement; sialogogue; stimulant; stops pain; strengthens the heart; strengthens the intestines; strengthens the tissues; systemic stimulant; thermoregulatory.

TRADITIONAL CHINESE ENERGETIC FUNCTIONS (~ = extrapolated):
Dried ginger
1) Warms the interior, expels cold, rebuilds the yang.
2) Promotes lactation.
3) Transforms phlegm.
4) Warms the lungs in chronic bronchitis.
Fresh ginger
1) Causes sweating, releases the exterior.
2) Expels cold, warms the middle burner.
3) Stops nausea.
4) Removes toxins.
5) Modifies the ying and wei qi. (For patients with exterior cold due to deficiency who sweat without improvement in their condition.)
Leaves
1) Invigorate blood

OTHER ENERGETIC FUNCTIONS: With honey, ginger relieves Kapha, with rock candy it relieves Pitta, and with rock salt it relieves Vata.

RANGE: Tropics and sub-tropics throughout the world.

HABITAT: Native to Southeast Asia. Likes moisture and fertile soil.

GATHERING: In your garden or at the market. Zingiber officinale has not naturalized in Hawai'i, although in a pinch local Hedychium rhizomes can be used.

PROPAGATION & CULTIVATION: Commercial ginger doesn’t flower, thus bears no fruit. Propagated by rhizome. Best propagated with large starts and in mounds. Harvest after it dies back and hardens off, unless you want to make pickled ginger. Do not propagate in the same soil two years in a row; it should be rotated with another crop.
Expect 20-25,000 lbs an acre, although my herb-nerd friend Mike Moriarty has seen yields of 60,000 lbs an acre.

RESEARCH:
Antimicrobial
• Reduces swelling and fever in rats [Mascolo 1989].
• Some sesquiterpenes are antirhinoviral in vitro [Denyer]. Constituents inhibit Epstein-Barr virus in vitro [Vimala 1999]. Ethanol extract inhibits both gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria [Mascolo 1989]. The essential oil is antimicrobial [Martins 2001].
• A methanol extract of dried ginger inhibited 19 strains of Helicobacter pylori in vitro [Mahady 2003].
Cardiovascular
• Effect on blood pressure is inconclusive. Ginger lowers cholesterol in lab animals through interruption of biosynthesis [Fuhrman 2000] and reduces atherosclerotic lesions, possibly through antioxidant effects [Liu 2003]. Gingerol is cardiotonic in lab animals [Kobayashi 1988].
• There are conflicting data regarding ginger's effect on production of thromboxane and platelet aggregation [Janssen 1996; Thomson 2002; Koo 2001; Srivastava 1986]. The effect on platelet aggregation may be dose dependent. In one study 4 grams per day for 3 months did not affect platelet aggregation but one single dose of 10 grams did [Bordia 1997].


Digestion
• Ginger constituents inhibit gastric ulcers in lab animals [Yamahara 1988 & 1992;Yoshikawa 1994], including gastric damage by chemicals, NSAIDs and stress [al-Yahya 1989].
• More effective than conventional medicines for post-operative nausea [Pongrojpaw 2003]. Also effective for motion sickness [Lien 2003; Schmid 1994], although there are some conflicting data [Stewart 1991]. Other effective uses include nausea [Fischer-Rasmussen 1991], nausea from chemotherapy [Meyer 1995], and hyperemesis gravidarum [Fischer-Rasmussen 1991]. Please note caveats in Cautions and Contraindications.
• (6)-shogaol firms the intestinal muscles in guinea pigs [Hashimoto 2002].
• One gram of ginger in humans may reduce " hyperglycemia-evoked gastric dysrhythmias" through the blockage of prostaglandin production [Gonlachanvit 2003]. Reduces prostaglandin production in rats at therapeutic doses [Thomson 2002]. See Inflammation below.
Inflammation
• Ginger constituents inhibit arachadonic acid metabolism and prostaglandin synthesis. This may account for some of its anti-inflammatory properties. One constituent specifically, (6)-Shogaol, (found in semi-dry, but rarely fresh ginger), appears to interfere with the arachadonic / inflammatory cascade. It inhibits cyclo-oxygenases and prevents specific prostaglandin release in rabbits [Suekawa 1986] and rats [Mascolo 1989] Ginger may be a stronger inhibitor of prostaglandin synthesis than indomethacin [Flynn 1986; Guh 1995; Kiuchi 1992; Srivastava 1984]. It can be used for either rheumatoid or osteoarthritis [Altman 2001].
• Ginger extract is antiinflammatory on osteoarthrotic sow cartilage in vitro [Shen 2003].
Oncology
• Ginger has antimutagenic, anticarcinogenic, and chemoprotective properties due to its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities [Surh 2002]. Ginger oil is antioxidant in vitro [Lu 2003; Patro 2002]. Constituents such as [6]-gingerol and [6]-paradol show direct anti-tumor activity, blocking tumor production [Bode 2001; Surh 1998]. [6]-gingerol and [6]-paradol may also be cytotoxic / cytostatic against human promyelocytic leukemia cells (HL-60) [Lee 1998]. Ethanol extracts can prevent and inhibit live skin tumors in mice [Katiyar 1996], possibly through the improvement of immune function [Liu 2002]. Some of these anti-tumor and anti-inflammatory constituents have a structure similar to those found in vanilla [Surh 1999].
• Ginger inhibits COX-2 enxyme activity [Tjendraputra 2001]. Zerumbone (a ginger constituent) reduces inflammatory bowel conditions and colon cancer in mice (possibly through COX-2 inhibition) [Murakami 2003, 2004]. It may suppress free radical generation and cancer cell proliferation [Murakami 2002].
Other research
• Water extraction may be androgenic in rats [Kamtchouing 2002]. Sperm motility increased in animals given ginger for 3 months [Qureshi 1989].
• Intraperitoneal injection in mice reduces radiation sickness and mortality from exposure to gamma radiation [Jagetia 2003].
• Ginger juice is anticholinergic and antihistiminic [Qian 1992].
• Gingerols increase bile secretion [Yamahara 1985].
• Ethanol extract lowers blood glucose in rabbits [Mascolo 1989].
• Extracts kill Schistosoma mansoni parasites in vitro but not in vivo [Sanderson 2002].

NOTES 'N QUOTES
"... it doth corroborate the natural heate"
- - Henry Barham (1794)

• First recorded use: Shen Nong's Ben Cao, 3000 B.C. Confucius wrote about ginger in the 5th century B.C., and the 13th century Welch herbal "Physicians of Myddvai," included ginger as one of its' 175 plants.
• Pythagoras used ginger for digestion, Roman doctors used it during military marches, and it was employed by King Henry VIII to protect against plague.
• The Romans taxed ginger in the second century A.D, as did the French in the 13th.
• Large ginger rhizomes are called "hands."
• During the 1990s, over 4000 metric tons of ginger were imported into the USA annually.
• Indian ginger consumption is estimated to be 8-10 grams per person per day and India has more than 45 different varieties of ginger. It is called "vishwabhesaj " or "universal medicine" in the oldest Ayurvedic text, the Charaka Samhita. Ginger, garlic, and onion are called the "Trinity Roots" in Ayurveda.
• Ginger reduces inflammation by eliminating free radicals, and reportedly has ingredients that are better antioxidants than vitamin C.