Ginger

The rhizomes (underground stem) and stems of ginger have assumed significant roles in Chinese, Japanese and Indian medicine since the 1500s. The oleoresin of ginger is often contained in digestive, antitussive, antiflatulent, laxative, and antacid compounds.

There is supportive evidence from one randomized controlled trial and an open-label study that ginger reduces the severity and duration of chemotherapy-induced nausea/emesis. Effects appear to be additive to prochlorperazine (Compazine®). The optimal dose remains unclear. Ginger's effects on other types of nausea/emesis, such as postoperative nausea or motion sickness remain indeterminate.

Ginger is used orally, topically, and intramuscularly for a wide array of other conditions, without scientific evidence of benefit.

Ginger may inhibit platelet aggregation/decrease platelet thromboxane production, thus theoretically increasing bleeding risk.

synonyms:

6-gingerol, African ginger, Amomum zingiber L., black ginger, chayenne ginger, cochin ginger, curcumin gan jiang, gegibre, gingembre, gingerall, ginger BP, ginger oil, ginger power BP, ginger root, ginger trips, ingwer, jamaica ginger, kankyo, race ginger, rhizoma zingeberis , sheng jiang, zerzero, Z. capitatum, Z. officinale  Roscoe , Z. zerumbet Smith, Z. blancoi Massk, Z.  majus Rumph, Zingiberis rhizoma; Zinopin (Pycnogenol and Standardized Ginger Root Extract (SGRE)); Zintona EC (ginger extract 250mg of Zingiberis Rhizoma per capsule).

Courtesy: Medline Plus

Ginger Root

Ginger contains up to 3% of an essential oil that causes the fragrance of the spice. The main constituents are sesquiterpenoids with (-)-zingiberene as the main component. Lesser amounts of other sesquiterpenoids (β-sesquiphellandrene, bisabolene and farnesene) and a small monoterpenoid fraction (β-phelladrene, cineol, and citral) have also been identified.

The pungent taste of ginger is due to nonvolatile phenylpropanoids (particularly gingerol and zingerone) and diarylheptanoids (gingeroles and shoagoles); the latter are more pungent and form from the former when ginger is dried. Cooking ginger transforms gingerol into zingerone, which is less pungent and has a spicy-sweet aroma. None of these pungent chemicals are related to capsaicin, the principal hot constituent of chile pepper.

information source: Wikipedia