Description

The Ginger plant has a thick, branched rhizome (underground stem) with a brown outer layer and yellow centre that has a spicy, citrusy aroma. Every year, it grows pseudostems (false stems made of tightly wrapped leaf bases) from the rhizome which bear narrow leaves. The flowers grow on separate, shorter stems in a cone-shaped spike and are pale yellow in colour with purplish edges.

Ginger is  frequently used in medicines, food, and cosmetics across the globe, and has a variety of medicinal and traditional uses to the native South African people, and is traditionally used to treat colds, to clear the nasal passages, coughs, flu and asthma.

May also be taken for pain and may help manage chronic inflammation. A preparation of this plant is administered to horses as prevention against horse sickness.

Fresh, preserved, and dried rhizomes, as well as oleoresin extracts, have all been used medicinally.