Active Compounds in Gingers and Their Therapeutic Use in Complimentary Medication

The rhizome of ginger is used widely both as a seasoning and herbal medicine. The active compounds contained in ginger are divided into two groups: volatile essential oils and fragrant or harsh phenol compounds. Two types of gingers, fresh and dried, are used in the herbal medicine. There exist differences in the chemical composition between fresh and dried gingers that might result in differences in medicinal functions of the herbs. The therapeutic functions, which include lowering cholesterol, relieving allergies and asthma, arthritis, colds, and nausea, protecting the digestive tract and liver against toxins and parasites, and avoiding gallstone, cerebral vascular and cardiovascular diseases, are reviewed and the toxicity and safety issues are also discussed in this article. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________