Razi Journal of Medical Sciences

Ginger (Zingiber officinale roscoe) is the plant that today  is used in abundance all around the world. In the past, this plant had been an important part of Chinese medicine, Hindi traditional medicine and Greek medicine. It was used in the treatment of various diseases like flu, rheumatism, nervous diseases, gingivitis, toothache, asthma, stroke, constipation and diabetes. To date, several animal and human studies have investigated the effect of ginger on blood glucose and lipids. The information of this article is obtained based on the results of our search in pubmed and elsevier databases. According to the findings of most studies in this basis, it seems that ginger  probably can decrease blood glucose and insulin, increase insulin sensitivity and improves lipid profile, especially in patients with type 2 diabetes. In this review, we represent some of these  studies and discuss the possible mechanisms of the effect of ginger on glycemia and lipid profile.