The Health Benefits of Ginger's Antioxidative and Anti-Inflammatory Action

Ginger is a genus belonging to the family Zingiberaceae. It has around 50 genera, and there are about 1600 known species of aromatic perennial herbs that have creeping horizontal or tuberous rhizomes. It is mainly spread across the parts of tropical Africa, Asia, and the Americas. The main phenolic compounds found in the fresh ginger are gingerols, which besides 6- gingerol, include 4-, 5-, 8-, 10-, and 12-gingerols. The gingerols show a diversified bioactivity with many of them possessing antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities, among others. Given the broad spectrum of biological activities and published data concerning the mechanisms of action, it would seem that a complex interaction between two critical events, including inflammation, and oxidative stress, may contribute to the broad spectrum of pharmacological activities of this compound. Indeed, such compound is of great attention considering its role in the immune system; hence, among them, immunomodulatory activity has been a challenge for most of the reports under study. Actually, these compounds might inhibit Akt and NF-κB pathways upon their activation hence leading to lowering the cytokines  that promote inflammation whilst elevating those anti- inflammatory cytokines. Because the bioavailability of  gingerols is extremely low, development and even improvement of treatment methods with such compounds are obligatory. The solution of the problem for finding new means of delivery systems with incorporated gingerols represents a good approach to the delivery of new drug systems in recent years. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the immunomodulating activity of gingerol, including its mechanism of action and roles of nanodrug delivery systems that have been designed for such an activity.