Analgesic and Anti-inflammatory Effects of Ginger Oil

Objective Ginger(Zingiber officinale) is widely used as a spice in cooking and as a medicinal herb in traditional herbal medicine.The present study was to investigate the analgesic and anti-inflammatory activities of ginger oil in experimental animal models.Methods The analgesic effect of the oils was evaluated by the "acetic acid" and "hot-plate" test models of pain in mice.The anti-inflammatory effect of the oil was investigated in rats,using rat paw edema induced by carrageenan,adjuvant arthritis,and vascular permeability induced by bradykinin,arachidonic acid,and histamine.Indomethacin(1 mg/kg),Aspirin(0.5 g/kg) and Dexamethasone(2.5 mg/kg) were used respectively as reference drugs for comparison.Results The ginger oil(0.25-1.0 g/kg) produced significant analgesic effect against chemically-and thermally-induced nociceptive pain stimuli in mice(P < 0.05,0.01).And the ginger oil(0.25-1.0 g/kg) also significantly inhibited carrageenan-induced paw edema,adjuvant arthritis,and inflammatory mediators-induced vascular permeability in rats(P < 0.05,0.001).Conclusion These findings confirm that the ginger oil can be used to treat pain and chronic inflammation such as rheumatic arthritis.