Want to reduce the spread of Covid-19? Try ginger, teh halia

 

I doubt any Malaysian is unfamiliar with ginger. It is an essential condiment in our cooking and some of us love ginger tea or ‘teh halia’. I have been drinking ginger tea, without milk, daily for a long time and my wife uses it in almost everything she cooks.

The medicinal properties of this spice are legendary. Our grandmothers and mothers have also given us or recommended ginger when we were unwell, especially with a cold; and they have recommended it when we had nausea or before we were about to undertake a long journey or travel by air.

Home remedy proponents suggest that it relieves indigestion and period pains and soothes sore muscles.

Ann M. Bode and Zigang Dong say in their book Herbal Medicine: Biomolecular and Clinical Aspects that ginger’s current name comes from the Middle English gingivere, but that it dates back over 3,000 years to the Sanskrit word srngaveram, meaning “horn root,” based on its appearance. In Greek, it was called ziggiberis, and in Latin, zinziberi.

The writers say Indians and Chinese are believed to have produced ginger as a tonic root for over 5,000 years to treat many ailments, and that this plant is now cultivated throughout the humid tropics, with India being the largest producer.

“Ginger was used as a flavoring agent long before history was formally recorded. It was an exceedingly important article of trade and was exported from India to the Roman Empire over 2,000 years ago, where it was especially valued for its medicinal properties. Ginger continued to be a highly sought after commodity in Europe even after the fall of the Roman Empire, with Arab merchants controlling the trade in ginger and other spices for centuries. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the value of a pound of ginger was equivalent to the cost of a sheep. By medieval times, it was being imported in preserved form to be used in sweets. Queen Elizabeth I of England is credited with the invention of the gingerbread man, which became a popular Christmas treat.”

There is, in fact, a Tamil saying that there’s no medicine better than ginger.

But the potency of ginger is not just based on word of mouth or grandmother’s tales. Modern science too agrees that ginger is health giving and useful in a variety of treatments.

Scientific studies suggest ginger may help relieve migrane and knee pain, and is useful in the treatment and prevention of allergic diseases. There is evidence that this rhizome can not only help protect against cardiovascular diseases but can also lower cholesterol levels and improve lipid metabolism.

Some studies indicate it may be useful in the fight against cancer, especially colon cancer, as ginger suppresses the proliferation of human cancer cells.

Bode and Dong say in their book that studies also show that dried ginger helps in the treatment of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease.

And, of course ginger has been used for centuries in the treatment of respiratory illnesses such as asthma.

Now, scientists have found that ginger can help reduce the spread of the latest respiratory disease bedevilling mankind – Covid-19.

Researchers at the University of Central Florida say ginger consumption can reduce the transmission potential of airborne pathogens such as the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 or SARS-CoV-2 responsible for Covid-19.

Scientists and health authorities tell us that the Covid-19 virus spreads through the air via droplets when an infected person speaks, coughs, sneezes or breathes. That is the reason we are asked to wear masks – so that we do not get easily infected or spread it to others.

So far, the wearing of masks and physical distancing seem to be the best measures against the disease.

Since the virus is spread via the saliva, researchers Michael Kinzel and Kareem Ahmed at the University of Central Florida (UCF) thought, why not look into the mouth for a solution. They figured that if you can thicken the saliva and disrupt its ability and speed to be airborne, you may be able to reduce the spread of the virus.

Their findings, published recently in the journal Nature Scientific Reports, shows that the transmission potential of airborne pathogens can be reduced by using food product ingredients – such as ginger – to thicken and reduce a person’s saliva.

According to UCF, the research builds on previous work by Kinzel and Ahmed on the effectiveness of masks in the classroom, features that could make someone a super spreader, and initial studies of food ingredients to control airborne disease transmission.

Kinzel is an assistant professor in UCF’s department of mechanical and aerospace engineering while Ahmed is an associate professor in the same department.

“The group has researched droplet formation for years,” Kinzel says. “When we heard sneezes transported aerosols over 27 feet early in the pandemic, we realised that this has to be small aerosols, similar to what you see in a misting nozzle. Our thinking has been let’s focus on altering those droplets such that they fall to the ground and not travel so far.”

The duo and their team examined the characteristics of saliva, such as thickness and amount, and their influence on how far droplets and aerosols from a human’s sneeze would travel.

They used high-speed cameras to capture the sneezes frame-by-frame in mid-air and then quantified the droplets and aerosols using image processing and computational fluid dynamics.

They altered saliva using food-grade compounds such as ginger, cornstarch and xanthan gum.

Ginger proved the best at the task.

Ginger, they found, not only reduced the amount of saliva expelled from a sneeze by more than 80%, but was as effective as a mask in reducing the distance droplets and aerosols travelled after a sneeze.

What about cornstarch and xanthan gum? Cornstarch increased the thickness of saliva by 5% while xanthan gum increased it by 2,000%. While both reduced the distance of aerosol travel from the sneeze of someone who did not wear a mask, wearing a mask was still more effective in reducing aerosol distance than cornstarch and xanthan gum.

Their findings could supplement other measures, such as the wearing of masks, and further help in managing the spread of Covid-19.

For example, when a person coughs, he or she expels pathogen-laden, fine-scale saliva droplets or aerosols into the air. People near the person may then inhale the droplets suspended in the air. Though face masks and social distancing are helping to reduce the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the researchers argue, fine respiratory particles may still linger in the air and infect another person nearby.

Their food product ingredients composition provides a way to control transmission directly from the source – saliva.

The researchers are working on creating a Covid-19 cough drop or lozenge or candy that would give people thicker saliva, thus reducing the distance droplets from a sneeze or cough would travel.

I hope our health minister and local health experts take note of this to see how we can use this discovery to our benefit.

In the meantime, I suppose we can drink ginger tea or use more ginger in our cooking or even place a piece of ginger on our tongue now and then. No, the researchers are not saying this. I am saying it based on my use of ginger. And if you’re drinking ‘teh halia’, please don’t add milk as it cuts the potency.

But remember not to overdo it. The saying “everything in moderation” still holds true for whatever we do in life. - FMT

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not reflect those of MMKtT.