Ginger
The pungent root behind the spice, taken above all for a queasy stomach.
- Sickness in pregnancy
- Digestion
- Joint pain
- Inflammation
- Period pain
- Weight and blood sugar
A plain-English overview, not advice. Written from published reviews and trials and from what people say in public forums.
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On this page
What is ginger?
Ginger is the knobbly underground stem of Zingiber officinale, a tropical plant whose dried root became one of the world’s most widely used spices and a fixture of traditional Chinese medicine. More than 160 compounds have been identified in it, and the ones its reputation rests on are the pungent phenolics: gingerols in the fresh root, which lose water when it is dried or heated and become shogaols. Supplements sell it two ways, the root dried and ground, and an extract concentrated so that gingerols make up a stated share. Its popularity starts with being a food: most people know it from a curry or a hot drink long before a capsule.
Why do people take ginger?
Sickness in pregnancy
The thinking. Sickness in the first months of pregnancy is where many people meet ginger as a capsule rather than a spice, often the first thing tried. The root has been used for an unsettled stomach for centuries, and reviews put that down to its pungent gingerols.
What research has found. Twelve randomised trials in 1,278 pregnant women have been pooled: nausea scores came out lower on ginger than on a dummy capsule, while the number of times women were sick did not clearly change. A later review gathering eighteen earlier reviews found the same, at 450 to 1,950 mg a day. This is one of the best-studied uses, and several reviews of trials broadly agree.
Digestion
The thinking. Heaviness after a meal, bloating and a slow stomach are everyday reasons people keep ginger about, as tea, as a shot or in a capsule. The thinking is that the pungent compounds act on the gut itself; broad reviews list protection of the digestive tract among ginger’s most studied effects.
What research has found. A review of 109 randomised trials across all of ginger’s uses put digestive function among the few areas where trials agreed. The one trial to measure it directly gave 51 healthy young adults 1.2 g of standardised root powder for a fortnight: indigestion eased, while bowel habit did not change. Research here is still young: a few studies so far, mostly pointing the same way.
Joint pain and stiffness
The thinking. Stiff, aching knees and hands are ginger’s other long-standing use, and it is a common ingredient in joint supplements. The thinking is that whatever damps inflammatory signalling elsewhere also reaches the lining of a joint; reviews of its chemistry tie the old use for arthritis and pain to the gingerols.
What research has found. An umbrella review weighing all the pooled research on ginger rated the work on pain in osteoarthritis as high quality, though the average effect was small. It rests on earlier reviews of trials in adults who already had painful joints. Only a few studies have measured this so far, though they mostly agree.
Inflammation
The thinking. Some people take ginger for nothing they can point to exactly: a sense of being inflamed, aches that move about, slow recovery. The thinking is that gingerols and shogaols interfere with the signalling that sets inflammation running, and turn up the body’s own antioxidant defences.
What research has found. This is measured in blood tests, not in how anyone feels. Three meta-analyses, the largest pooling sixteen trials in 1,010 adults, found C-reactive protein and tumour necrosis factor alpha lower on average and antioxidant activity higher, though interleukin-6, another such marker, did not shift. Smaller trials in adults with arthritis or ulcerative colitis found much the same. A fair body of trials has looked at this, and most point the same way.
Period pain
The thinking. Period pain is a use passed along by word of mouth, and some people keep ginger in a drawer for a few days each month. The thinking is the same as behind the joint research: that the compounds damping inflammatory signalling are at work here too.
What research has found. One randomised trial has measured it: a hundred and twenty students with moderate or severe period pain took 500 mg of root powder three times a day, either from two days before the period or only once it had begun, and rated their pain less severe than on a dummy capsule. Few studies have measured this yet, so there is little to go on either way.
Weight and blood sugar
The thinking. Ginger turns up in routines aimed at weight, blood sugar and blood pressure together, as a morning shot or a capsule with breakfast. The idea is that it nudges how the body handles sugar and fat. Nearly all this research was in adults with type 2 diabetes or carrying extra weight.
What research has found. Reviews pooling dozens of trials in adults with type 2 diabetes found fasting blood sugar and HbA1c, the three-month average, down by small amounts. A review of fourteen trials in 473 adults carrying extra weight found body weight lower on average, while another covering the same ground found little change. Six pooled trials put the upper blood-pressure number about 6 mmHg lower. A reasonable number of trials have measured this, and most of them agree.
What does ginger do in the body?
Ginger is not a nutrient, and the body has no job waiting for it. Its character comes from the pungent phenolics: gingerols in the fresh root, which lose water when it is dried or heated and turn into shogaols, the sharper compounds in dried ginger. Those two are what the research follows.
Inside the body they behave as damping agents rather than as fuel. Laboratory work traces two threads: they switch on a pathway that turns up a cell’s own antioxidant machinery, and they interfere with the signalling that releases inflammatory proteins, so fewer of those are let out. They do not hang about: gingerols are cleared from the blood quickly, joined to other molecules by the body and passed out, and trials commonly split the day’s amount across two or three capsules.
What do people say about taking ginger?
These are anecdotes people have shared, not evidence.
What people like
- Four of the five threads read were about feeling sick, three of them in pregnancy, so most reports concern a queasy stomach.
- Fresh root steeped in hot water, often with lemon or honey, is what people reach for most, and several say it helps.
- Crystallised lumps eaten like sweets, and dry biscuits or oat cakes, come up repeatedly as the forms that got people through the day.
- Capsules get a warm if cautious reception: two people found them useful, one for travel sickness, while another suspected coincidence.
Common complaints
- Several cannot face ginger at all when they feel sick, put off by the smell or the taste, and one still could not years later.
- It plainly does not work for everyone: one had tried tea, biscuits and wristbands with no relief, another could not tell whether it helped.
- One poster described being doubled over with stomach cramps whenever they eat it, taking a fortnight to settle.
How people take it
- Slices or gratings of fresh root in hot water, sometimes with lemon or honey, sipped through the day, is the commonest method.
- Where capsules are used they are described as 500 mg, and one poster kept to no more than two a day.
- Food forms do much of the work: biscuits, oat cakes, chews, crystallised lumps and ginger beer, chosen for being dry or strong.
- A few juice the fresh root with apple as a morning shot; one found boiling slices for five minutes too much bother.
Read from these public discussions:
- Ginger - please help!!! (Mumsnet, 2021)
- Morning sickness - ginger and acupressure (Mumsnet, 2012)
- Morning sickness remedies (Mumsnet, 2013)
- Ginger is wonderful (Mumsnet, 2020)
- Using ginger for period cramps (Patient.info, 2016)
What forms of ginger are there?
| Form | What’s different | Per serving, on products we list |
|---|---|---|
| Extract | Ginger root concentrated, usually standardised so gingerols, the pungent compounds, make up a stated share of the powder. | 120 mg |
| Root powder | The dried rhizome ground whole, the same material as the kitchen spice, with nothing concentrated or removed. | not in our price tables yet |
What else is worth knowing about ginger?
- The trials describe ginger as well tolerated. In the pregnancy reviews it was no more likely than a dummy capsule to bring on heartburn or drowsiness, and no rise in the risk of miscarriage was found against a dummy capsule or vitamin B6.
- An overview of the published reviews singled out the one area where they could not reach a firm conclusion: what ginger does to platelet aggregation, how readily blood cells clump together.
- One review notes that, while trials back ginger for sickness in early pregnancy, there is not enough data to rule out effects from taking it over long stretches.
- Trials used 0.5 to 3 g of root powder a day, split across two or three capsules. Labels give the amount per serving, often more than one capsule, and a standardised product states the gingerols it carries: 1.2 g a day in one trial came to 84 mg of them.
If you take medication, are pregnant, or have a health condition, check with a pharmacist or GP first.
The research behind this page (33 studies)
- Treatment of Nausea and Vomiting With Zingiber officinale in Pregnancy: An Umbrella Review of Systematic Reviews With Meta-Synthesis. (2026, systematic review)
- Ginger (Zingiber officinale Rosc.) and its bioactive components are potential resources for health beneficial agents. (2021, systematic review)
- Ginger for health care: An overview of systematic reviews. (2019, systematic review)
- A systematic review and meta-analysis of the effect and safety of ginger in the treatment of pregnancy-associated nausea and vomiting. (2014, meta-analysis)
- Ginger on Human Health: A Comprehensive Systematic Review of 109 Randomized Controlled Trials. (2020, systematic review)
- Effect of Ginger Root Powder on Gastrointestinal Bacteria Composition, Gastrointestinal Symptoms, Mental Health, Fatigue, and Quality of Life: A Double-Blind Placebo-Controlled Trial. (2023, randomised trial)
- Orally consumed ginger and human health: an umbrella review. (2022, systematic review)
- Effect of ginger (Zingiber officinale) supplementation on oxidative stress parameters: A systematic review and meta-analysis. (2021, meta-analysis)
- The effects of ginger supplementation on markers of inflammatory and oxidative stress: A systematic review and meta-analysis of clinical trials. (2020, meta-analysis)
- Effect of ginger (Zingiber officinale) on inflammatory markers: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. (2020, meta-analysis)
- The effect of ginger supplementation on some immunity and inflammation intermediate genes expression in patients with active Rheumatoid Arthritis. (2019, randomised trial)
- Zingiber officinale and oxidative stress in patients with ulcerative colitis: A randomized, placebo-controlled, clinical trial. (2019, randomised trial)
- Effect of Ginger Supplementation on Proinflammatory Cytokines in Older Patients with Osteoarthritis: Outcomes of a Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial. (2016, randomised trial)
- Effect of Zingiber officinale R. rhizomes (ginger) on pain relief in primary dysmenorrhea: a placebo randomized trial. (2012, randomised trial)
- Ginger (<i>Zingiber Officinale</i>) Supplementation and Biomarkers of Cardiovascular Disease - A Systematic Review. (2026, systematic review)
- Meta-analysis of the effects of ginger supplementation on glycemic control, blood pressure and lipid profile in patients with type 2 diabetes. (2026, meta-analysis)
- The effects of ginger intake on weight loss and metabolic profiles among overweight and obese subjects: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. (2019, meta-analysis)
- Does ginger supplementation lower blood pressure? A systematic review and meta-analysis of clinical trials. (2019, meta-analysis)
- A systematic review of the anti-obesity and weight lowering effect of ginger (Zingiber officinale Roscoe) and its mechanisms of action. (2018, systematic review)
- The Effects of Ginger ( Zingiber Officinale Roscoe) on Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: A Randomized Double-Blinded Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trial. (2024, randomised trial)
- Effectiveness of ginger in reducing metabolic levels in people with diabetes: a randomized clinical trial. (2020, randomised trial)
- Changes of serum adipocytokines and body weight following Zingiber officinale supplementation in obese women: a RCT. (2016, randomised trial)
- Effect of cinnamon, cardamom, saffron and ginger consumption on blood pressure and a marker of endothelial function in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus: A randomized controlled clinical trial. (2016, randomised trial)
- The effect of ginger (Zingiber officinale) on glycemic markers in patients with type 2 diabetes. (2015, randomised trial)
- The effect of ginger consumption on glycemic status, lipid profile and some inflammatory markers in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. (2014, randomised trial)
- The effect of ginger powder supplementation on insulin resistance and glycemic indices in patients with type 2 diabetes: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. (2014, randomised trial)
- Effects of ginger (Zingiber officinale) on plasma glucose level, HbA1c and insulin sensitivity in type 2 diabetic patients. (2013, randomised trial)
- Bioactive Compounds and Bioactivities of Ginger ( Zingiber officinale Roscoe). (2019, review)
- Gingerols and shogaols: Important nutraceutical principles from ginger. (2015, review)
- Effect of Ginger on Inflammatory Diseases. (2022, review)
- A critical review of Ginger's (<i>Zingiber officinale</i>) antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and immunomodulatory activities. (2024, review)
- Nutritional implications of ginger: chemistry, biological activities and signaling pathways. (2020, review)
- Potential Role of Ginger (<i>Zingiber officinale</i> Roscoe) in the Prevention of Neurodegenerative Diseases. (2022, review)
How much does ginger cost?
That depends on the form and the pack, so we work out the price of the same dose of every ginger product we can find and rank them.