Buy Ginger Root For Digestion, Headaches, Fever and Other Benefits

Known as Canada snakeroot, colicroot, and Indian ginger, this beautiful native wildflower and medicinal herb grows from southern Canada south to North Carolina and Tennessee, and as far west as Kansas and Missouri The species name, canadense suggests Canada, the region where the plant was originally identified. The Latin genus name, Asarum, means "heart-shaped," referring to the leaves.

The soft leaves, two to seven inches broad, top seven- to ten-inch velvety stems that divide just above the ground. In spring, a single, low reddish-brown tubular blossom with a slightly creamy interior develops in the notch of the stem division. These spring blooms lie almost on the ground and are pollinated by carrion beetles and ground insects drawn to the slightly rank odor.

Traditional uses:

Native Americans used ginger as a primary digestive aid and valuable heart medicine. Ojibwa Indians of Lake Huron regions called it pegamagabow and seasoned many different foods with the roots. It was also considered a powerful protection against unseen forces or illness. Ginger roots were worn and carried as charms as well as used to treat certain heart conditions, headache, colds, sore throat, coughs, and cramps application for absent in school due to fever.

The Illinois and Miami Indians used wild ginger roots to ease childbirth and relieve pain. They called the plant akiskiouaraoui, "herb of the rattlesnake," and applied pieces of the root to snakebite injuries and also chewed it. Throughout the tribal northeast American ginger, also called wild ginger, had many special applications and added its strength to vital formulas.

Modern uses:

Wild ginger roots contain the anti-tumor compound aristolochic acid, which also has antimicrobial properties. This herb substitutes for oriental ginger in many medicinal preparations and continues to be used in ways similar to those traditionally favored by American Indians.

Today we are much more familiar with the commercial oriental ginger, Zingiber officinale (Zingiberaceae), known as sheng jian in Chinese medicine. It is a close relative of turmeric, Curcuma longa. This aromatic rhizome contains high levels of a volatile oil that is warming and stimulating. It acts as a circulatory stimulant given to relieve headache, fever, and aching muscles and also relieves nausea, morning sickness, and motion sickness.

Growth needs and propagation:

American ginger is an easily cultivated perennial. It prefers rich, moist woodland earth, and thrives in shade or dappled shade. The low-growing, aromatic plants are often set in shaded show gardens, interspersed with clumps of European ginger, A. europaeum. Sometimes growing in dense colonies in the areas they favor, these creeping, slender plants also form a lovely ground cover along wooded pathways and foundation areas.

It is easiest to increase American ginger by taking root cuttings with buds and roots in the late fall. These should be planted in rich, moist soil at a depth of about two inches. It is best to mulch ginger plants with generous layers of leaves for the winter.