Ginger : the superfood with surprising health benefits

Abstract

Ginger (Zingiber officinale) is a plant whose rhizome, also known as ginger root, found its use all over the world both as a spice and a folk medicine. Ginger belongs to the Zingiberaceae family which also involves turmeric (Curcuma longa), cardamom (Elettaria cardamonum) as well as galangal. Ginger originated from Maritime Southeast Asia, which at the time, was occupied by Austronesian population. It was then transported through the Indo-Pacific during the Austronesian expansion (c. 5.000 BP) making it even as far as Hawaii. This makes ginger one of the very first spices exported from Asia arriving in Europe along with the spice trade. Ginger was well known for its medicinal purposes for thousands of years and commonly used by ancient Greeks and Romans. Nowadays, ginger is broadly applied in traditional Asian medicine systems including Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) for treatment of various conditions starting from colds to arthritis. When consumed as a supplement ginger showed a variety of health benefits such as reduction of inflammatory processes and improvement of outcomes related to Diabetes Mellitus type 2.