Ginger essential oil has been a staple in many dishes, especially in Asian cuisine. It also provides a special twist to baked goods and traditional desserts. Freshly extracted from the roots of the ginger plant, it gives off a warm, spicy, and slightly sweet taste as well as a distinctive aroma.
Zingiber offinale, the ginger’s botanical name, is a flowering plant of the Zingiberacea family and is a close relative to turmeric. Ginger, a perennial plant that is native to Southern Asia, can grow up to four feet high and bears clusters of white or yellow flowers. However, only its brown, tuberous rhizomes are used for culinary and medicinal purposes.
Ginger essential oil has a thin consistency and a pale yellow color. The scent varies depending to the method of extraction and the quality of the ginger used. Distilled fresh ginger root makes the best ginger essential oil.
The health benefits of the ginger essential oil are mostly attributed to its analgesic, carminative, expectorant, digestive, and stimulating properties among many others.
Nutrition Info
Vitamin C 5 mg – 8% RDA
Vitamin E 0.3 mg – 1% RDA
Vitamin K 0.1 mcg
Thiamin 2% RDA
Riboflavin 2% RDA
Niacin 0.7 mg – 4% RDA
Vitamin B6 0.2 mg – 8%
Folate 11.0 mcg
Pantothenic Acid 28.8 mg
Calcium 16.0 mg – 2% RDA
Iron 0.6 mg – 3% RDA
Magnesium 43.0 mg – 11% RDA
Phosphorus 34.0 mg – 3% RDA
Potassium 415 mg – 12% RDA
Sodium 13.0 mg – 1% RDA
Zinc 0.3 mg – 2% RDA
Copper 0.2 mg – 11%
Manganese 0.2 mg – 11%
Selenium 0.7 mcg – 1%
1. Promotes Digestive Tract Health
Ginger essential oil is amongst the most efficient natural remedies in relieving stomach problems. It is most commonly used to treat colic, diarrhea, dyspepsia, flatulence, indigestion, and other bowel related issues. Its natural calmative and anti-inflammatory properties settle an upset stomach as fast as conventional medicine without any of the associated side effects.
Simply add a few drops of edible ginger essential oil to a cup of lukewarm water. You may also add a few drops to your bath water. Ginger also has antiseptic properties, which can be used to treat food poisoning, bacterial dysentery, and intestinal infections.
Overall, it promotes a healthy digestive system. In fact, ginger is a staple ingredient in Indian cuisines as it increases appetite and allows further peristalsis, the process in which digested food is moved along the intestines.
2. Eases Pain and Inflammation
Ginger essential oil has been used topically in traditional medicine to ease pain and reduce inflammation. Modern studies have presently proven its efficacy. Its anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties are attributed to an enzyme called Zingibain or also known as ginger protease. Its analgesic nature reduces pain associated by arthritis, rheumatism, sore muscles, headaches, and migraine. Likewise, it helps regulate the production prostaglandins, a physiological internal secretion that is produced in response to trauma. Massaging ginger essential oil unto your aching muscles may also remove muscle strain as well.
3. Treats Eczema, Acne, and Skin Allergies
Ginger essential oil is an antidote for skin allergies, eczema, and other inflammatory skin problems such as pimples and acne. It helps reduce redness and combat pimple-causing bacteria. You may blend ginger essential oil with carrier oils when used for facial use.
Likewise, it protects your skin from free radical damage with its content of powerful antioxidants. Ginger essential oil is strong; hence, adding a few drops to your moisturizer will suffice.
4. Provides Aromatherapy Effects
One of the highly sought benefits of ginger oil is the therapeutic effects it has on our emotional and mental well-being. Referred as the ‘oil of empowerment’, ginger oil highlights its ability to alleviate stress, ease tiredness, and endue a happy temperament or positive aura.
All it takes is a few drops of ginger oil in your diffuser or bath water. Inhaling the vapors of ginger oil can immediately calm your nerves. In addition, massaging ginger oil onto sore muscles can greatly reduce pain and promote circulation. You will experience complete mind and body relaxation as the oil warms up while you inhale its aroma.
5. Eases Respiratory Issues
Add a few drops of ginger oil to a bowl of hot water and inhale its vapors. Ginger essential oil is an effective, all-natural expectorant in treating various respiratory issues such as the common cold, cough, and flu. It eases inflamed sinuses, remove mucus from the throat, and clears out clogged airways of the lungs.
6. Alleviates Menstrual Cramps
Dysmenorrhea is a common symptom present during menstruation, which typically lasts two to three days. Massaging your pelvis or lower abdomen with ginger essential oil provides relief from menstrual pain. The warm oil soothes the muscle and reduces inflammation.
7. Improves Liver Health
The liver is an indispensable, hard-working organ that process nutrients from food, filter blood, eliminate dead cells, and neutralize harmful hormones among many others. While it plays a crucial role in maintaining metabolic balance, it is also highly susceptible to toxic, cancerous, viral, and microbial attacks.
Having a daily cup of ginger essential oil tea is a natural way to detoxify your liver. It contains a significant amount of antioxidants that reduce cellular damage and boost your immunity. It also helps prevent fatty liver induced by high-fat diet, hepatoma or enlargement of liver, as well as prevents liver toxicity due to anti-tuberculosis drugs.
8. Helps Manage Nausea, Vomiting, and Travel Sickness
Ginger essential oil helps with nausea and vomiting, which are caused as side effects of certain medications. Inhaling the aroma of the ginger essential oil inhibits the hyperactivity of the vagus nerve that triggers nausea and vomiting by preventing serotonin function within the digestive tract.
Similarly, it eases giddiness during travels. A whiff of this essential oil also provides an efficient non-drug relief for morning sickness during pregnancy.
9. Helps Address Male Impotency
Ginger essential oil has been used in various therapies to encourage sexual enhancement and treat certain sexual issues such as male impotency. Male impotency or erectile dysfunction is among the most common conditions that affect older men. Massaging ginger essential oil onto your private part helps promote circulation as your skin absorbs all the active ingredients from the oil. Its stimulating earthy aroma also helps boosts your libido. Oral consumption also helps, as it delivers a vasodilatory effect in this manner as well.
10. Promotes A Healthy Circulatory System
For centuries, ginger essential oil has been used in traditional Chinese medicine to strengthen the heart. Modern studies have now shown that it actually helps develop an ideal triglyceride profile.
Ginger essential oil reduces blood CRP (C-reactive protein), lowers cholesterol levels, and regulates blood sugar. It aids in lowering blood pressure by modulating the nervous system through stimulation of muscarinic receptors and blockade of calcium channels.
It also helps prevent atherosclerosis by protecting the endothelial cells that line the blood vessels from oxidative stress.
11. Helps Reduce Cancer Risk
Ginger essential oil also features anti-cancer effects. It encourages apoptosis or cell death in endometrial cancer cells owing to its content of ginger terpenoids. Likewise, Zerumbone, another substance present in ginger, can also cause apoptosis in pancreatic cancer cells and cause colorectal cancer cells to become more sensitive to radiation, enabling radiation therapy to be more effective. In addition, it obstructs angiogenesis in skin cancer, which is a mechanism these cells use to further their growth and survival. Addressing these mutations in early stages helps prevent cancer from getting to the irreversible stages.
Conclusion
Ginger essential oil can be used to alleviate both the symptoms and to treat actual health conditions. It is composed of a chemical group called sesquiterpenes, thanks to which its antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, and other healing qualities can be attributed to.
The chemical makeup of ginger essential oil improves circulation, making it ideal for a soothing massage. Hailed as the ‘oil of empowerment’, it also provides a positive impact on mental and psychological well-being, making it a truly invaluable addition to a healthy lifestyle.