Affiliations 

  • 1 Department of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Mauritius, Réduit, Mauritius
  • 2 Bionanotechnology Research Group, Ton Duc Thang University, Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam; Faculty of Pharmacy, Ton Duc Thang University, Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam. Electronic address: rengasamy.kannan@tdtu.edu.vn
  • 3 Deccan School of Pharmacy, Darussalam, Aghapura, Hyderabad, 500001, Telangana, India
  • 4 School of Pharmacy, Monash University, Jalan Lagoon Selatan, 47500 Bandar Sunway, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia; Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (IPS), University of Veterinary & Animal Sciences (UVAS), Lahore, Pakistan
  • 5 Department of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Mauritius, Réduit, Mauritius; Centre for Integrative Metabolomics and Computational Biology, School of Science, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, WA 6027, Australia
  • 6 College of Plant Sciences and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China
  • 7 Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Selcuk University, Turkey
Semin Cancer Biol, 2021 Feb;69:140-149.
PMID: 31412298 DOI: 10.1016/j.semcancer.2019.08.009

Abstract

Ginger is a spice that is renowned for its characteristic aromatic fragrance and pungent taste, with documented healing properties. Field studies conducted in several Asian and African countries revealed that ginger is used traditionally in the management of cancer. The scientific community has probed into the biological validation of its extracts and isolated compounds including the gingerols, shogaols, zingiberene, and zingerone, through in-vitro and in-vivo studies. Nonetheless, an updated compilation of these data together with a deep mechanistic approach is yet to be provided. Accordingly, this review highlights the mechanisms and therapeutics of ginger and its bioactive compounds focused on a cancer context and these evidence are based on the (i) cytotoxic effect against cancer cell lines, (ii) enzyme inhibitory action, (iii) combination therapy with chemotherapeutic and phenolic compounds, (iv) possible links to the microbiome and (v) the use of nano-formulations of ginger bioactive compounds as a more effective drug delivery strategy in cancer therapy.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.