Investigation of the effect of ginger on the lipid levels. A double blind controlled clinical trial.

OBJECTIVE: To study the effect of fine powder of ginger on lipid level in volunteer patients. METHODS: This is a double blind controlled clinical trial study in 2 cardiac clinics Cardiac Disease Clinic, Babol, north of Iran, between April to May 2004. We randomly divided the patients with hyperlipidemia into 2 groups, treatment group (receiving ginger capsules 3 g/day in 3 divided doses) and placebo group (lactose capsule 3 g/day in 3 divided doses) for 45 days. All subjects with diabetes mellitus, hypothyroidism, nephrotic syndrome, and alcohol drinking, pregnancy and peptic ulcer were excluded. Lipid concentrations profile before and after treatment was measured by enzymatic assay. RESULTS: Forty-five patients in the treatment group and 40 patients in placebo group participated in this study. There was a significant reduce in triglyceride, cholesterol, low density lipoprotein (LDL), very low density lipoprotein (VLDL), levels of before and after study separately in each group (p0.05). CONCLUSION: The results show that ginger has a significant lipid lowering effect compared to placebo.