Ginger is an herb. The rhizome (underground stem) is used as a spice and also as a medicine. It can be used fresh, dried and powdered, or as a juice or oil.
Ginger is commonly used to treat various types of “stomach problems,” including motion sickness, morning sickness, colic, upset stomach, gas, diarrhea, nausea caused by cancer treatment, nausea and vomiting after surgery, as well as loss of appetite.
Other uses include treating upper respiratory tract infections, cough, and bronchitis. Fresh ginger is used for treating acute bacterial dysentery, baldness, malaria, poisonous snake bites, rheumatism, migraine headache, and toothaches.
Dried ginger is used for chest pain, low back pain, and stomach pain. Some people pour the fresh juice on their skin to treat burns. The oil made from ginger is sometimes applied to the skin to relieve pain.
In foods and beverages, ginger is used as a flavoring agent. In manufacturing, ginger is used as for fragrance in soaps and cosmetics. One of the chemicals in ginger is also used as an ingredient in laxative, anti-gas, and antacid medications.
The health benefits of ginger are plentiful and it is often classed as a wonder spice with both medicinal and culinary upsides. Over forty-four hundred years ago, according to "Rodale's Encyclopedia of Herbs", Greek bakers made gingerbread from ginger that was imported from the Orient.
