**4. Medicinal uses and potential health benefits in traditional medicine**

Ginger has direct antimicrobial properties and can thus be used to treat bacterial infections [25]. It is used as a stimulant in Traditional Chinese Medicine to treat colic and atonic dyspepsia [26–28]. Ginger is a Yang plant that might help to reduce Yin and nourish the body [29]. Ginger is described as spicy and hot in Traditional Chinese Medicine, and it is said to treat cold extremities and warm up the body, enhance a slow and erratic heartbeat, a pale appearance on skin, and strengthen the body after blood loss [30]. Ginger is used as a herbal treatment for a variety of cardiovascular conditions [31]. Other researchers emphasized that ginger is used to treat inflammation, nausea, headaches, arthritis, muscular discomfort, rheumatism, and colds in Ayurvedic, Chinese, Arabic, and African traditional remedies (**Figure 3**) [32, 33]. The rhizomes of ginger have recently been utilized in Traditional Medicine to treat a variety of cardiovascular disorders, including hypertension [34]. Ginger has been used as an anti-edema drug in Iranian Traditional Medicine as a therapy for a variety of diseases, such as athero-sclerosis, gastric ulcer, respiratory disorders, gastrointestinal disorders, migraine, cholesterol; depression and nausea, other benefits of ginger include pain relief, anti-inflammatory, rheumatoid arthritis and antioxidant effects [35]. This is one of India's most popular spices, and it has long been used in traditional oriental medicine to treat common colds, stomach problems, and rheumatism [36]. The primary components of ginger include 10-gingerol, 8-gingerol, 6-shogaol, and

*The Therapeutic and Phytopharmacological Potential of Ginger (*Zingiber officinale*) DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.105900*

#### **Figure 3.**

*Traditional and modern pharmacological applications of ginger. In both traditional and modern medicine, ginger has been used to treat a variety of symptoms and disorders [32].*


#### **Table 1.**

*Ginger's active chemical components [41].*

6-gingerol, all of which have been demonstrated to have significant antioxidant activity [37]. Ginger's most prevalent bioactive ingredient, 6-gingerol, has a wide range of pharmacological actions, including antipyretic activities, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and analgesic [38, 39]. After being digested and absorbed by the digestive system, shogaols can be partially changed to paradols by cooking or metabolized to paradols in the animals' bodies [40]. Anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activities are known to exist in Shogaol and Gingerol in particular (**Table 1**) (**Figure 1**) [42].
