Fresh Ginger
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Herbs for Dispelling Wind and Cold
Fresh Ginger
Latin:
Rhizoma Zingiberis Recens
Origin:
As the rhizome of Zingiber officinale Rosc., a perennial herb, of family Zingiberaceae, probably native to southeastern Asia, it is produced everywhere and picked and dug in Autumn and Winter. Its generic name Zingiber is derived from the Greek zingiberis, which comes from the Sanskrit name of the spice, singabera.
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Its use in India and China has been known from ancient times, and by the 1st century AD traders had taken ginger into the Mediterranean region. By the 11th century it was well known in England. The Spaniards brought it to the West Indies and Mexico soon after the conquest, and by 1547 ginger was being exported from Santiago to Spain.
The leafy stems of ginger grow about a metre high. The leaves are 15 to 30 cm long, elongate, alternate in two vertical rows, and arise from sheaths enwrapping the stem. The flowers are in dense, conelike spikes about 2 cm thick and 4 to 6 cm long composed of overlapping green bracts, which may be edged with yellow. Each bract encloses a single, small, yellow-green and purple flower.
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Ginger is propagated by planting rootstalk cuttings and has been under this type of cultivation for so long that it no longer goes to seed. Harvesting is done simply by lifting the rhizomes from the soil, cleansing them, and drying them in the sun. The dried ginger rhizomes are irregular in shape, branched or palmate. Their colour varies from dark yellow through light brown to pale buff. Ginger may be unscraped; partly scraped; or scraped or peeled.
There are two kinds of ginger, the tender and the old. For medicinal use the latter is mostly applied.
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See also Food, Vegetables, Ginger, Fresh.
Properties:
Pungent in flavor, warm (the tender ginger is slightly warm, the dried ginger is hot) in nature, it is related to the spleen, lung and stomach channels.
Functions:
Induces sweat, relieves exterior syndrome, warms the spleen and stomach to arrest vomiting, warms the lungs to relieve coughing, disperses cold. Ginger is also used medically to treat flatulence and colic.
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Dried ginger functions in warming the middle-jiao and eliminating pathogenic cold, recuperating depleted yang and promoting blood circulation.
Applications:
1. Medicine for inducing sweat, expelling exopathogens and arresting vomiting: It can treat common colds caused by wind-cold, relieve common cold with headache or nasal obstruction, sneezing, feeling of floating or taut pulse due to attack of pathogenic wind-cold.
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2. Used for vomiting due to cold in the stomach: ginger can warm the stomach, disperse cold, regulate the spleen and stomach and arrest vomiting. It can treat vomiting due to cold in the stomach or abdominal pain. In cases of vomiting due to heat in the stomach, it is used together with Chinese gold thread rhizome (Rhizoma Coptidis), bamboo shavings, and the like, which can clear the stomach.
3. Used for coughing caused by wind-cold: Dispersing pungency and warmth, ginger can warm the lungs and disperse cold, resolve phlegm and relieve coughing. Therefore, it can be used to treat attacks of wind-cold on the lungs, coughing with abundant phlegm or nausea with headache.
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4. Removing toxins of fish and crabs: It can treat poisoning caused by fish, crabs, pinellina rhizome or jack-in-the-pulpit (Rhizoma Arisaematis). To prevent poisoning by these substances, it is recommended that ginger be added when cooking fish or crabs or that pinellina rhizome or jack-in-the-pulpit be soaked in water together with ginger.
Dosage and Administration:
3-10 g.
, 百拇医药 Decoction, or blended into juice, or used as seasoning or cooked together with vegetables.
Cautions on Use:
As ginger impairs yin and promotes fire, it should be avoided by those who have interior heat due to yin deficiency or bleeding due to blood-heat.
Reference Materials:
Toxic or Side Effects:
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Modern Researches:
Ginger contains about 2 percent essential oil; the principal component is zingiberene and the pungent principle of the spice is zingerone. Other ingredients include phellandrene, camphene, shogaol, gingerol, borneol, citral, resin and starch.
1. It has a biphasic action on the stomach, i.e., first inhibits its secretion and then stimulates for a longer period. Taking it orally can whet the appetite, and can also stimulate oral and gastric mucus and speed up the secretion of digestive juices.
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2. It can inhibit abnormal fermentation in the intestines and promote the discharge of gas.
3. The mixture of zingiberol and shogaol can produce the effect of arresting vomiting.
4. It can stimulate the respiration center and vasomotor centers, and induce sweat.
5. It promotes circulation in the blood vessels, prevent blood coagulation, lowers blood lipides and prevents thrombosis, and is therefore very effective for preventing cardiac infarction. It can also raise blood pressure. It can excite the blood pressure to rise an average of 11.2 mmHg in normal people., http://www.100md.com