1. Aliases
Dried Ginger, White Ginger, Jun Ginger.
2. Plant Morphology
Perennial herb. The rhizome is fleshy, with a white cross-section, powdery, and has a strong spicy aroma. Leaves are arranged in two rows, sessile and embracing the stem, with lanceolate to linear-lanceolate leaf blades. Flower stalks emerge from the rhizome, with an oval spike inflorescence, ovate bracts, pale green, tubular calyx with 3 lobes, tubular corolla with 3 lobes, lanceolate; one stamen, nearly equal in length to the lip petal, ovary inferior, 3-celled, glabrous, with a slender style. Flowering period is from August to October.
3. Distribution
Native to tropical Asia. Cultivated in most regions of China.
4. Harvesting and Processing
Harvest before the first frost in winter, remove stems, leaves, fibrous roots, and soil, wash clean, and dry in the sun or at low temperatures.
5. Medicinal Properties
Dried ginger appears as flat blocks with finger-like branches. The surface is grayish-yellow or light gray-brown and rough. Branching often retains scale leaves, with stem scars or buds at the tips. It is solid, with a yellowish-white or grayish-white cross-section. It can be powdery or granular, with distinct annular patterns in the inner skin layer. It has a fragrant, unique aroma and a spicy taste.
6. Nature and Taste
Nature: Hot; Taste: Spicy. Channels: Spleen (Pi), Stomach (Wei), Heart (Xin), Kidney (Shen), Lung (Fei).
7. Effects and Functions
Warms the middle, disperses cold, restores yang, opens the meridians, dries dampness, and resolves phlegm. It is classified as a warming interior medicine.
8. Clinical Applications
Dosage: 3-10 grams, decocted for internal use. Used to treat abdominal cold pain, cold limbs with weak pulse, phlegm-damp cough, gastrointestinal gas pain and cramping, rheumatic pain, lower back and leg pain, gastric and duodenal ulcers, acute bacterial dysentery, acute orchitis, intestinal obstruction due to roundworm, and chronic indigestion.
9. Pharmacological Research
Animal experiments show that the decoction and extract have central excitation, stomachic, antiemetic, and antibacterial effects; the essential oil has anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects. It has sedative, analgesic, anti-inflammatory, blood pressure-raising, and anticoagulant effects; it has antiemetic effects and enhances intestinal contractions in the digestive system; it eliminates schistosomiasis, has anti-blood fluke effects, and promotes the synthesis and release of adrenal cortex hormones.
10. Chemical Composition
Contains essential oils, with main components including gingerone, 6-gingerol, β-bisabolene, α-zingiberene, β-sesquiphellandrene, gingerol, δ-cadinene, eucalyptol, citral, and borneol.
11. Contraindications
Contraindicated for those with yin deficiency and internal heat, or blood heat with reckless movement.
12. Compatible Formulas
① For sudden heart pain: Dried ginger powder, take a small spoon with warm wine, several times, will heal. (From “Zhou Hou Fang”)
② For all cold, qi stagnation heart pain, chest and abdominal distension: Combine 4 parts white rice with 30 grams each of dried ginger and galangal, cook and eat. (From “Shou Shi Qing Bian” Dried Ginger Porridge)
③ For post-meal sour vomiting: 60 grams each of dried ginger and evodia. Grind the two, take with wine, a small spoon, twice daily. Effective for cold stomach. (From “Qian Jin Yao Fang” Treatment of Middle Scatter)
④ For pregnancy vomiting that does not stop: 30 grams each of dried ginger and ginseng, 60 grams of pinellia. Grind, make into pills with fresh ginger juice, the size of a walnut, take ten pills, three times a day. (From “Jin Kui Yao Lue” Dried Ginger Ginseng Pinellia Pills)
⑤ For excessive diarrhea: Dried ginger powder, mix with porridge, 3 grams, effective immediately. (From “Zheng He Ben Cao” citing Sun Zhenren’s formula)
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