Ginger is one of the oldest cultivated spices in the world, first grown in the tropical forests of Southeast Asia before spreading into China and India, where it became a staple of both cuisine and traditional medicine — including Traditional Chinese Medicine and Ayurveda, where it was valued for warming the body and settling the stomach. Ancient Chinese physicians recorded its use for digestive complaints and nausea over 2,000 years ago.
Ginger became one of the first spices to travel the ancient spice routes west, reaching the Roman Empire, where it was prized — and taxed — as a luxury import. It later became one of the first Asian spices successfully cultivated in the Caribbean and West Africa during the colonial era, making it one of the most globally distributed traditional remedies. Few natural remedies have as continuous and widespread a history of medicinal use across so many unconnected cultures, arriving at similar conclusions independently.
Ginger has one of the more robust evidence bases among traditional remedies, particularly for nausea. A systematic review and meta-analysis of 12 randomized controlled trials involving 1,278 pregnant women found ginger measurably effective at reducing pregnancy-related nausea and vomiting, with a generally favorable safety profile. Multiple reviews on postoperative nausea and vomiting have also found consistent, positive effects.
The picture is more mixed for chemotherapy-induced nausea: some meta-analyses find ginger reduces acute vomiting when taken consistently at doses of 1g/day or less, while others find no significant benefit for nausea specifically once results are pooled across differently designed trials. Researchers consistently note that trial quality, dosing, and preparation vary a lot between studies — which is why ginger doesn't get a flat "Strong" rating across the board. It's genuinely well-evidenced for some types of nausea, and still uncertain for others.
Traditionally consumed as fresh or dried rhizome, steeped as tea, chewed raw, or added to food. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, fresh ginger and dried ginger were considered to have different medicinal properties and were prescribed for different purposes — a distinction still reflected in how ginger is used today.