Ginger has been used as a spice and medicine for thousands of years. Its use has been recorded in early Ayurvedic Treatises and Chinese texts. Ginger has a wide variety of herbal uses, many of which have been scientifically proven. Ginger has anti–emetic, anti–inflammatory and anti–platelet properties which have attracted considerable interest amongst researchers globally.

• Ginger can be chewed after meals in conditions like indigestion, gastritis, flatulence, gastrointestinal infection and parasites. This protective action of ginger is attributable to the excessive secretion of saliva.
• If you feel very heavy and bloated after consumption of non–vegetarian and fried fatty food, you can try this remedy – take half a teaspoonful of fresh ginger juice, one teaspoonful each of fresh lime juice and fresh mint juice mixed in a teaspoonful of honey thrice daily.
• If you have painful periods, take a small piece of fresh ginger, pound it, and boil in a cup of water for a few minutes, sweetened with sugar thrice daily.
• Ginger acts as a good medicine for throat problems. Chewing a piece of fresh ginger along with a clove and a crystal of common rock salt acts as an excellent remedy for laryngitis, loss of voice due to shouting or singing, paralysed muscles of the tongue, colds, rhinitis, enlarged uvula, tonsillitis etc.
• If expectoration or bringing out the phlegm is needed in condition such as bronchitis, asthma, whooping cough, tuberculosis etc. then ginger is the right medicine. Take a teaspoonful of fresh ginger juice mixed with a cupful of fenugreek decoction and honey.
• If you are suffering from dropsy and scanty urination, take a teaspoonful of ginger juice with a glass of tender coconut water.
• For those who suffer from dental sensitiveness and toothache caused by eating sour foods, ginger gives good relief. Burn it and mix with common salt. This can be used as toothpowder.
• If you suffer from diarrhoea and dysentery, fresh ginger fried in ghee can be taken with buttermilk twice or thrice daily.
• Half a teaspoonful of ginger juice can be taken with half–boiled egg and honey once a day for a month. This tones up the sex centres and is very useful in helping to cure impotency, premature ejaculation, spermatorrhoea etc.
• In rheumatic pains, neuralgia, sciatica, myalgvia etc. coconut oil in which a piece a fresh ginger has been fried can be applied as a liniment.

• To stimulate digestion, and to enhance the absorption of other treatments.
• As a diaphoretic and anti–pyretic for fever and the common cold.
• As a diffusive stimulant to reinforce the action of other digestive, diaphoretic and expectorant herbs.
• To treat and prevent nausea and vomiting in cases of infection, motion sickness, nausea during pregnancy and post–operative and drug–induced nausea. It has also been effective in the treatment of vertigo. It is advised to give ginger as early as possible during nausea as the vomiting back of ginger can act as a kind of 'aversion therapy'.
• To treat digestive problems, particularly colic, flatulent dyspepsia, peptic ulcers and gastro–intestinal infections and infestations.
• As an anti–platelet agent for decreasing cardio–vascular risk, prophylactic of thrombosis and treatment of thrombocytosis.
• As an anti–inflammatory treatment in conditions, such as osteo and rheumatoid arthritis
• In prophylaxis and treatment of migraine headaches, especially in conjunction with other herbal remedies.
• Topical application for acute inflammatory conditions, like a ginger compress for acute mastitis.

• Ginger should not be used in conditions such as obstinate sin diseases, anaemia, dysuria, haemorrhage, burning sensation in the body, and too much during the 'hot' or summer season.
• Use of ginger should always be matched to the patient's condition and constitution.
• Ginger should be used cautiously in patients receiving potent anti–coagulant and anti–platelet drugs or in circumstances where prolonged bleeding may be disadvantageous or dangerous.

IF IN DOUBT ALWAYS SEEK THE ADVICE OF AN AYURVEDIC MEDICAL PRACTIONER.