In Nigerian traditional medicine, ginger is used to treat colds, pain, arthritis, nausea, and vomiting. Beyond all of these, ginger shows promise in lowering seizure intensity, brain cell death, and cognitive deficiencies in people with epilepsy.
In a new study, researchers said that ginger pills can increase the efficiency of antiepileptic medications while posing manageable side effects. Ginger alone did not affect seizure severity but as a supplement with Sodium Valproate, an antiepileptic drug, it can significantly improve learning performance and protect against brain cell loss.
People of all ages can be affected by the neurological condition known as epilepsy. The World Health Organisation estimates that 2.4 million people worldwide receive an epilepsy diagnosis each year. The patients’ and their families’ quality of life is negatively impacted by this crippling neurological condition, which frequently comes with cognitive impairments impacting attention, language, memory, and executive functioning.
Over 75% of patients from low-income populations worldwide do not receive treatment for epilepsy, although it is a treatable disorder. Therefore, it is necessary to develop and make available novel antiepileptic drugs in low-income countries that are both highly effective and have a more manageable side-effect profile.
According to recent preclinical research, ginger extract may also help treat Alzheimer’s disease and cognitive impairment. The chemical components of ginger, particularly [6]-gingerol, [8]-gingerol, and [6]-shogaol, can cross the blood-brain barrier, indicating that these compounds may play a role in the effects of ginger extracts on the central nervous system.
In animal models with epilepsy, the researchers had assessed whether long-term administration of ginger aqueous extract (GE) alone or in conjunction with SDV may reduce seizure severity, cognitive deficits, and brain cell death.
These male mice were pretreated with ginger extract, Sodium Valproate (100 and 200 mg/kg), and a mixture of ginger extract and Sodium Valproate. Control animals received the same number of saline solution injections.
Afterwards, the mice underwent a learning performance test. Their brains were also excised and the hippocampi were isolated from them for studies. It was in the journal, OBM Integrative and Complementary Medicine.
Pretreatment with sodium valproate at 100 and 200 mg/kg significantly reduced the seizure severity score compared to the control group, which received a salt solution. Ginger extract alone did not affect kindled seizures.
However, the co-administration of ginger extract with sodium valproate did not significantly enhance the effect of sodium valproate in reducing the seizure severity score, suggesting that the treatment only caused a gradual increase in brain excitability.
According to the researchers, the combination of sodium valproate and ginger extract dramatically reversed learning deficits in animal models of epilepsy, even though it decreased the anticonvulsant effectiveness of sodium valproate.
They did, however, warn that future research should take into account how ginger extract works in conjunction with sodium valproate and other antiepileptic medications to prevent epileptic seizures and reduce inflammation.
Local herbs and spices have been found in earlier research to be useful in the treatment of neurological conditions such seizures, epilepsy, and convulsions. Tetrapleura tetraptera, cowhage, cloves, turmeric, thyme, and Cannabis sativa are among the indigenous plants.
Tetrapleura tetraptera is locally known as aridan among the Yoruba, osakirisa or oshosho among the Igbo, dawo among the Hausa, all in Nigeria. Commonly called Velvet bean or Cowhage, Mucuna pruriens is known as werepe in Yoruba and agbala or agbaloko in Ibo.
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Turmeric is a spice that comes from the root of Curcuma longa, a member of the ginger family, Zingaberaceae. In Nigeria, it is called atale pupa in Yoruba; gangamau in Hausa; nwandumo in Ebonyi; ohu boboch in Enugu (Nkanu East); and onjonigho in Cross River (Meo tribe).
Commonly called clove, Syzygium aromaticum belongs to the plant family Myrtaceae. The locals, especially in Lagos call it konofo.
Results of a study published in Phytotherapy Research concluded: “Tetrapleura tetraptera fruit aqueous extract (TTE) possesses analgesic and anticonvulsant properties. These findings lend pharmacological support to the suggested folkloric uses of the plant’s fruit in the management and/or control of painful, arthritic inflammatory conditions and the management and/or control of epilepsy and childhood convulsions in some tropical African countries.”
Also, extracts of cloves have been used to treat convulsions, seizures and sleeplessness in a study published in the Nigerian Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences.
According to the study, “The result of this study, therefore, suggests that the ethyl acetate fraction may not have contained the bioactive constituents that are useful in the treatment of epilepsy. However, the fraction may contain constituents that are beneficial in potentiating the effects of diazepam in inducing sleep suggesting sedative activity of the fraction.”
