Digestive System Disorders
Ginger is a valuable drug for disorders of the digestive system. It is extremely useful in dyspepsia, flatulence, colic, vomiting, spasms and other painful affections be the stomach and the bowels. Chewing a piece of fresh ginger after meals regularly is an insurance against these ailments. This protective action is attributable to excessive secretion of saliva, diastate enzyme and volatile oil.
Half a teaspoon of fresh ginger juice, mixed with one teaspoonful of each of fresh lime juice and fresh mint juice and a tablespoonful of honey, constitutes an effective medicine for dyspepsia, nausea and vomiting due to a biliousness, indigestion caused by intake of heavy non-vegetarian and fried fatty food, morning sickness, jaundice and piles. This mixture should be sucked thrice daily in the treatment of these conditions.
Cough and Cold
Ginger is an excellent remedy for coughs and colds. Extracted juice of ginger with honey should be taken three or four times a day in case of coughs. In case of colds, ginger should be cut into small pieces and boiled in a cup of water. It should then be strained and half a teaspoon of sugar added to it .It should be drunk while hot. Ginger tea, prepared by adding few pieces of ginger into boiled water before adding tea leaves, is also an effective remedy for colds and for fevers resulting from cold
Respiratory Disorders
A teaspoonful of the fresh ginger juice mixed with a cupful of fenugreek decoction and honey to taste is an excellent diaphoratic mixture which increases sweating to reduce fever in influenza. It acts as an expectorant in bronchitis, asthma, whooping cough and tuberculosis of the lungs.
Aches and Pains
Ginger is an excellent pain killer. It can cure all types of pain. In headache, ginger ointment made by rubbing dry ginger with a little water and applied to the forehead affords relief. It allays tooth ache when applied to the face. In case of earache, a few drops of ginger juice will give relief.
Sexual Debility
Ginger juice is a valuable aphrodisiac. It is highly beneficial in the treatment of sexual weakness. For better results, half a teaspoon of ginger juice should be taken with a half-boiled egg and honey, once, daily at night for a month. It tones up the sex centuries and cures impotency, premature ejaculation, spermatorrhoea.
Menstrual Disorders
Ginger is also useful in menstrual disorders. A piece of fresh ginger should be pounded and boiled in a cupful of water for few minutes. The infusion sweetened with sugar should be taken thrice daily after meals as a medicine for dysmenorrhoea, and amenorrhoea due to exposure to cold winds and taking cold bath.
Uses
In western countries, it is widely used for culinary purposes in gingerbread, biscuits, cakes, puddings, soups and pickles. But it is used as curry powder all over the world. Ginger is the most widely-used spice in Chinese cookery. It is used in the production of ginger beer, ginger ale and ginger wine. It was formerly much used for spicing wines, possets and porter, the last one often being stirred with a red-hot poker.
