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08.10.2023

Ginger kicks your immune system up a notch - now we know how

Ginger boosts the immune system. The amount of 6-gingerol - the main active substance in ginger - you need for this is modest. You should be able to get enough 6-gingerol through regular ginger tea to activate your immune system.

Study
In the spring of 2023, German molecular nutritional scientists, affiliated with Technical University of Munich, published an in vitro study in which they experimented with human immune cells - neutrophils, to be precise. Neutrophils are the immune cells that do the real work. They kill parasites and other micro-organisms and clear away dead cells.

The Germans wondered if they could find out how ginger boosts the immune system. The first step was to detect receptors on the neutrophils with which 6-gingerol, probably the most important bioactive compound in ginger, can interact. When the researchers found the capsaicin receptor [other terms: vanilloid receptor-1 or TRPV1] on the neutrophils, they knew they had found it.

They then exposed the immune cells to a concentration of 6-gingerol [chemical structure below] that you would expect to find in the blood of people who have drunk a liter of ginger tea. This amounts to consuming one teaspoon of ginger tea powder. That's 2 grams of ginger tea powder. Any ginger supplement contains many times the amount of gingerols in ginger powder.

Gingerol turns into shoagol when heated. Fresh ginger, extracts and ginger tea powder are significantly better sources of gingerols than ginger powder from the supermarket.

The researchers then exposed the neutrophils to both 6-gingerol and the peptide N-formylmethionine-leucyl-phenylalanine [fMLF]. Immune cells can recognize that peptide. The peptide resembles peptides from dangerous bacteria.

Results
Exposure to N-formylmethionine-leucyl-phenylalanine caused the neutrophils to produce more CXCL8. CXCL8 is the same as interleukin-8. More interleukin 8 means that neutrophils produce more aggressive substances [ROS] with which they can eliminate foreign invaders and cells infected by viruses.

The immunostimulating effect of 6-gingerol disappeared when the researchers also exposed the neutrophils to trans-tert-butylcyclohexanol [BCH]. BCH prevents substances such as gingerols from interacting with the capsaicin receptor TRPV1.

Conclusion
"At least in our experiments, very low [6]-gingerol concentrations are sufficient to affect the activity of immune cells via the TRPV1 receptor," summarizes first author Gaby Andersen in a press release. [sciencedaily.com February 14, 2023] "In blood, these concentrations could theoretically be achieved by consuming about one liter of ginger tea."

"Our results support the assumption that the intake of common amounts of ginger may be sufficient to modulate cellular responses of the immune system," adds research leader Veronika Somoza.

"Nevertheless, there are still many unanswered questions at the molecular, epidemiological and medical levels that need to be addressed."

Source:
Mol Nutr Food Res. 2023 Feb;67(4):e2200434.

More:
Ginger speeds up recovery from Covid-19 by thirty percent 26.06.2023
The antiviral effect of fresh ginger 06.04.2021

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