VALUE OF GINGER

Evening Star, Issue 21316, 21 January 1933, Page 20

VALUE OF GINGER

If you’re fond of ginger you may indulge in all the good things that are made with it, for its properties are so beneficial to your health. Those who like ginger are indeed fortunate, for ginger is a very valuable medicine. It is used in pharmacy largely as a stomach sedative and preventive of griping. The best ginger is plump, yellowish white but not chalky, brittle, mealy in texture, with a biting and aromatic taste. Undesirable qualities are toughness, hardness, and lack of flavour. Avoid dark or shrivelled ginger. Chew a little of the dried root; it will stimulate the flow of saliva in your mouth. As saliva is the first digestive juice that food encounters on its way down the food canal, it will be seen that digestion is thus immediately assisted. Its action in the stomach is carminative ,and when you suffer from wind and colic you will realise its value. For the relief of dyspepsia, the dose of the powder is from ten to twenty grains; the tincture is given in doses of half to one teaspoonful in hot or cold w’ater, and the syrup in similar quantities. The tincture and the syrup are also of service in correcting diarrhoea. If you suffer from gouty dyspepsia, try this: Powder the root in a mortar (or buy the dried powder) and infuse a heaped teaspoonful of it in boiling milk. Take when sufficiently cool for supper, or at breakfast. A slice of good old-fashioned gingerbread, made with brown treacle and grated ginger, is a capital corrective of general intestinal sluggishness.