Is ginger effective for the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome? A double blind randomized controlled pilot trial

OBJECTIVES: Ginger is one of the most commonly used herbal medicine for Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) but no data exists about its effectiveness. DESIGN: Double blind randomized controlled trial SETTING: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill North Carolina, USA INTERVENTION: Forty-five IBS patients were randomly assigned to three groups: placebo, one gram of ginger, and two grams of ginger daily for 28 days. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The IBS severity scale (IBS-SS) was administered, as well as adequate relief of symptoms scale. A responder was defined as having at least 25% reduction in IBS-SS post-treatment. RESULTS: There were 57.1% responders to placebo, 46.7% to one gram and 33.3% to two grams of ginger. Adequate relief was reported by 53.3% on placebo and 53.3% in both ginger groups combined. Side effects were mild and reported by 35.7% in the placebo and 16.7% in the ginger groups. CONCLUSIONS: This double blind randomized controlled pilot study suggests ginger is well tolerated but did not perform better than placebo. Larger trials are needed before any definitive conclusions can be drawn