Ginger a day keeps cancer at bay

The National Institute of Nutrition (NIN) has claimed that regular intake of ginger could prevent cancer, reduce the risk of heart attack and correct minor genetic changes.

Ginger has been known to have medicinal properties, but the NIN did its own scientific evaluation of its role as an anti-oxidant (anti-cancer) and anti-coagulant (reduces risk of heart attack), its deputy director Kalpagam Polasa said.

Researchers found evidence of its role in xenobiotic metabolism (to fight toxicity) and also that both the nutritive and non-nutritive components of ginger played an important role in the inhibition of the carcinogenic process, thus preventing cancerous growth.

"The non-nutritive constituents exert their anti-carcinogenic effect by various mechanisms," the NIN research team said.

"Rats aged between eight and 10 weeks were divided into four groups consisting of six per group. Ginger powder was fed to them at 0.5 per cent, one per cent and five per cent levels for a month. A control group without the ginger feed was also maintained and the food intake of the animals recorded every week throughout the study," Polasa said.

According to the insitute, ginger has anti-oxidant properties and deactivates carcinogens, apart from increasing tissue levels of the protective enzymes in a human body.

Toxic metabolites of harmful drugs and chemicals are detoxified by the body's defence system, researchers said, pointing to the fact that some spices, particularly ginger, specially stimulate the levels of glutathione-s-transferases (GST), a group of enzymes which are cellular detoxification enzymes.

"There is a high correlation between the induction of these enzymes and inhibition of carcinogenesis," they said.

The liver, kidney, lung and intestine of the study animals were collected, processed and levels of drug metabolising enxymes were measured during experiments. At all levels of ginger feeding, stimulation of GST activity was seen in the liver and lungs. In the intestine and kidney, a significant increase was observed of one and five per cent levels.