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Zingiber officinale, commonly known as ginger, has been traditionally used in the treatment of various diseases. Researchers have reported that Z. officinale possesses antiinflammatory, antioxidant, and neuroprotective properties. Z. officinale has been used effectively to treat antiinflammatory conditions and rheumatoid diseases. Clinical trials of Z. officinale have confirmed that it is effective in the treatment of swelling and the reduction of rheumatoid factors. The ameliorative effects of ginger have been related to the inhibition of the leukotriene and prostaglandin biosynthesis. Ginger is an excellent natural product and offers much promise for the treatment of arthritis. It is useful in the life-long treatment of patients, with no side effects. This chapter deals with the antiinflammatory property and the potential use of Z. officinale in the treatment of arthritis. Excerpts were picked from research studies to summarize all the findings.

The crystallins are a family of monomeric proteins present in the mammalian lens and mutations in these proteins cause various forms of cataracts. The aim of our current study is to emphasize the structural characterization of aggregation propensity of mutation R58H on γD crystallin using molecular dynamics (MD) approach. MD result revealed that difference in the sequence level display a wide variation in the backbone atomic position, and thus exhibits rigid conformational dynamics. Changes in the flexibility of residues favoured to increase the number of intra-molecular hydrogen bonds in mutant R58H. Moreover, notable changes in the hydrogen bonding interaction resulted to cause the misfolding of mutant R58H by introducing α-helix. Principal component analysis (PCA) result suggested that mutant R58H showed unusual conformational dynamics along the two principal components when compared to the wild-type (WT)-γD crystallin. In a nutshell, the increased surface hydrophobicity could be the cause of self-aggregation of mutant R58H leading to aculeiform cataract.

Objective: To investigate the anti-inflammatory effect of aqueous extract of Zingiber officinale on carrageenan-induced inflammation on SpragueDawley (SD) rats.Methods: SD rats were divided into six of five groups and allowed to acclimatize for 1 week. Inflammation was induced on the animal by injecting theright hand paw with carrageenan (0.1 ml of 1%). Group 1 was given normal saline and served as a control. Group 2 was fed with food and water andserved as the carrageenan control. Group 3 was given 200 mg/kg aqueous extract of ginger, Group 4 with 400 mg/kg aqueous extract of ginger, andGroup 5 with 150 mg/kg diclofenac sodium (reference drug for inflammation).Results: The paw edema in carrageenan-induced SD rats was considerably reduced by treating with 400 mg/kg aqueous ginger extracts whencompared to the untreated SD rats (p