Ginger - The Unlikely Hero

When people enter a Chinese herbal pharmacy, they are immediately captivated by the herbs in both their beauty and strangeness. Flowers and fruits are simultaneously reassuring and unfamiliar. Barks and roots add colors and unusual textures. Everyone jumps a little at the site of the cicada skins, spooked by these ghostly insects even though their translucent exoskeletons are fragile enough to crumple under all but the lightest touch. (Trust me when I say there are far more frightening insects to be found amongst the jars of a Chinese pharmacy.) With all of these exotic sights and pungent smells it is easy to overlook the obvious. There is always one herb resting out in the open, perhaps on a cutting board, that never receives a second glance or a mention. The lowly ginger root, so common in food it is hardly thought of by most as medicinal. To the contrary, ginger is not only a delicious addition to various dishes, it is also a staple of the home pharmacy for its digestive and detoxifying properties.

Warm and spicy, ginger "wakes up" the digestion. One of ginger's greatest abilities is in the reduction of nausea. Keeping a box of ginger or ginger/cammomile tea can provide an easy solution to an upset stomach for a variety of reasons. Sugared ginger slices make both a delightful and effective digestive candy, in particular if you think you've eating something bad. While ginger does not cure food poisoning, it can be helpful at reducing the nausea and upset stomach that can linger. Ginger is also known to detoxify shellfish, making the pickled ginger an excellent complement to those rolls with crab at the sushi bar. Ginger may also be utilized in Chinese medicine to detoxify other herbs in a Chinese formula. Despite its humble appearance next to the exotic and rare herbs of a Chinese pharmacy, ginger plays a critical role in diet and in medicine.