Finding a remedy in ginger

The medical researcher pointed to a small green translucent capsule containing his patented extract of ginger grown in China.

'The Chinese have a treasure trove of traditional medicine,' said Dr Morten Weidner, peering into a microscope. 'We've combined their knowledge with our modern technology. Without the very expensive equipment which we have, you wouldn't know how to do it right.' After testing more than 100 traditional herbal 'cures' from around the world over the past five years and dismissing most as useless, Dr Weidner and his eight-strong research team in a sparkling laboratory in Copenhagen, believe they have found an ancient remedy for one of the world's oldest maladies: rheumatism.

Before hitting on the ginger extract, they looked at herbs including turmeric, widely used in India, and rosemary, which was favoured by European monks, all to no avail. 'We found a couple of active compounds but they were so poorly taken up in the body that you would need enormous amounts for it to have any effect,' Dr Weidner said.

Ginger has been used in Chinese medicine to treat the symptoms of rheumatism for about a century, according to Dr Robert Ko Kam-ming of the Hong Kong Traditional Medicine Research Centre at the University of Science and Technology, although a mixture of the pubescent angelica root and mulberry mistletoe is an older and more common remedy.

Dr Weidner said traditional medicine practitioners he consulted at the University of Chengdu in Sichuan were convinced that the active part of ginger was the herb's oil. 'In our research we have separated the oil from the other compounds and found that it is not the oil that is active but the phenolic compounds, the compounds that give a burning sensation,' he said.

One in every five people is affected in some way by rheumatism, according to Dr Raymond Wong Woon-shin, president of the Hong Kong Society of Rheumatology. There are more than 100 different forms of rheumatism, a general term for pain and stiffness of the joints, especially the knees, hips and fingers.