With the world inclining towards natural and herbal remedies for easily treatable health conditions, the need for you to know about the best benefits of exclusive ingredients increases! While some herbal ingredients have excessive power when they are fresh and some retain the power even when they dry up! One such extraordinary ingredient is dry ginger, also otherwise called as dried ginger. If you are wondering if dry ginger is good for health, the spice, commonly known as Sonth in Hindi and Sonthi in Telugu and in this article we explore some amazing dry ginger benefits for skin and health.
What Is Dry Ginger?
As its very name specifies, dry ginger is literally dried ginger. However, ginger has to undergo a proper drying process to be eligible to be called as “dry ginger.” While ginger in fresh form has great health benefits to offer, the dried form of ginger is excellent as a herbal ingredient too! In fact, dry ginger with honey benefits those who suffer from bitter taste in the mouth often! Also, a lot of people these days are using dry ginger for weight loss!
How To Make Dry Ginger At Home?
When we say “dry ginger” or “dried ginger,” it is not literally leaving ginger unattended and pick it up when it is literally out of its juices! With or without a dehydrator, drying or dehydrating ginger is not a big deal. Here is how dry ginger is made.
Choosing:
- Before you buy ginger, you need to run it through a freshness test. Well! You just need to pinch a small piece from the root and see if it’s coming out clean or has some fibres sticking out. If it comes out clean, it means the ginger is fresh and you are good to go.
- This doesn’t mean that ginger with fibre is not good for drying. It is good too but it gets difficult to grind the fibre into a smooth powder. So, pick the fresh ginger with not much fibre.
- Wash the ginger cleanly and peel it off. Cut it into thin pieces.
Drying:
- Drying ginger is as simple as putting it on a plate under sunlight or just at the window side with more light for a couple of days.
- If you can’t buy any time, just consider slicing the ginger and use a dehydrator or oven. Let the ginger be inside for around 2 hours at the oven set at 150F and keep checking intermittently.
- Once you see that your ginger is dry and ready to come out, take it out and leave it to cool.
- Make sure the ginger to perfectly dry.
Making Powder and Storing:
- To make the dried ginger powder, wipe your blender clean and dry and add the dried ginger slices to it. Now, grind it into a fine powder. Let it cool and then transfer it to an airtight container.
Amazing Dry Ginger Benefits For Health & Skin:
Here we enlisted 12 top dry ginger health benefits. Let’s have a look into them.
1. To Relieve Inflammation:
Dried ginger is used to relieve arthritis pain and inflammation as it has anti-inflammatory characteristics.
Preparation Instructions:
- Mix 4-5 tablespoons of dried ginger powder in a jar of water and boil it.
- Daily intake of water will treat the swelling in joints.
Usage Guidelines:
- Topical application of paste on knees also relieves joint pain.
2. As a kitchen Ingredient:
- Dried ginger is used in masalas and spices in the kitchen to make stews, curries, marinades and gravies.
- It is used in food made for lactating mothers and pregnant women.
- Dry ginger is also used to add flavour to different baked recipes like gingerbread, ginger candies and ginger cookies.
Preparation Instructions:
- Take fresh ginger, the sun dries it well and grinds it to a fine powder.
Usage Guidelines:
- In any recipe that needs an aromatic flavour, you can use the dried ginger powder in it.
3. To Treat an Upset Stomach:
Dry ginger is an excellent ingredient to treat stomach related problems. Right from acidity, bloating, stomach pain and other intestinal issues, the spice is just wonderful.
Preparation Instructions:
- Add a quarter teaspoon of dry ginger powder to a glass of sugarcane juice.
Usage Guidelines:
- Daily intake of this mixture in the early morning will relieve you from all stomach problems.
4. As a Pain Relief Medicine:
One of the most useful ingredients from the kitchen is dried ginger. Dry ginger powder benefits those who often suffer from a headache or anybody aches for that matter. Ginger has all it needs to soothe the muscles and ease the pain.
Preparation Instructions:
- Mix dried ginger powder with water to make a paste for any aches.
Usage Guidelines:
- Applying this paste on your forehead will treat the headache.
- Throat pain also gets relieved by applying a layer of this paste on the throat.
- Dried ginger can also treat chest pain.
- Chest pain will be cured by consuming a mixture of sugar, coconut water and dried ginger.
See More: Ginger Tea Benefits
5. Cure Cold:
Like ginger is known for its cold and cough curing properties, dry ginger also can work wonders in curing flu-related symptoms.
Preparation Instructions:
- For cold, add some dried ginger powder to your regular tea.
- For running nose, mix jaggery and dried ginger powder to make herbal medicine.
Usage Guidelines:
- For cold, consume dried ginger tea 2-3 times a day.
- For cold, eat the jaggery and dried ginger mixture 2 times a day.
6. As a Medicine for Skin Problems:
i) For smooth and shiny skin:
Ginger not only helps cleanse your body internally, but it also brings glow on your skin by detoxifying your body from within. It acts as a skin toner.
Preparation Instructions:
- Add 2-3 teaspoons of ginger powder in 3 glass of water.
- Boil it until it reduces to half.
- Cool and strain it.
- Now add some drops of rosemary oil.
- Mix it well and store in the refrigerator in a glass container.
Usage Guidelines:
- Apply the solution on your face by gently dabbing with a cotton ball.
- It removes impurities, reduces dryness and hydrates the skin.
ii) Cure pimples:
Dried ginger powder has anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory characteristics which help in opening the pores of the face and thus reduces the acne.
Preparation Instructions:
- Add half a teaspoon of ginger powder and one teaspoon of milk powder to a few drops of rose water.
- Make it into a fine paste.
Usage Guidelines:
- Apply it on your face as a mask and let it remain for 15 minutes.
- Wash it normal water and apply a good moisturizer.
- Use it once in a week to get rid of pimples and breakouts.
- This face mask will revitalize your skin cells and give you a fresh glow.
7. Aid In Weight Loss:
Dried ginger detoxifies your body from within thereby increasing your metabolism. As a result, you will start losing weight. For weight loss ginger tea is the best option.
Preparation Instructions:
- Add half teaspoon of ginger powder to one cup of warm water.
- You can sweeten it by mixing honey.
Usage Guidelines:
- Daily intake of this water will help in reducing weight.
- Dried ginger has thermogenic agents which burn fat and cure obesity.
8. To Relieve from Bloating and Indigestion:
- Dry ginger not only cures stomach pain, but it is also an amazing relief agent for bloating and indigestion.
- It is the best herbal option for getting quick relief from stomach uneasiness.
Preparation Instructions:
- Mix black salt, dried ginger powder and a bit of asafoetida in hot water to get relieved from flatulence.
- Add half spoon carom seeds with dried ginger powder in 3-4 drops of lime juice.
- Mix it to a fine paste and keep it for drying in shadow.
Usage Guidelines:
- Consume daily 1 gram in the evening and early morning with salt to get devoid of flatulence, indigestion and bloating.
See More: Ginger For Cold
9. To Treat Urinary Tract Infections:
Urinary tract infections are quite common in women and when UTIs attack, it’s just so painful. Consulting a doctor could be uncomfortable sometimes. In those times, dry ginger comes as a boon for quick relief.
Preparation Instructions:
- Add dried ginger powder to milk to cure urinary infections.
- You can add sugar as per your taste to it.
Usage Guidelines:
- Consume it twice a day for at least 3 to 5 days and your UTI will just disappear.
10. Relieve Gastrointestinal Distress:
Ginger is best known for its natural healing properties, especially Gastrointestinal Distress. Dry ginger soothes the upset stomach and rectifies the digestion process.
Preparation Instructions:
- For Gastrointestinal Distress, dry ginger tea is good.
- To make dry ginger tea,
- Boil a small glass of water.
- Now add little dried ginger powder.
- Stir well, switch off the flame.
- Add a few drops of honey.
- Serve hot.
Usage Guidelines:
- Consume it twice a day for at least 3 to 5days and your Gastrointestinal Distress-be relieved.
11. Helps in Treating Jaundice:
Dry ginger is an antioxidant that cleanses your body from within flushing out toxins. When the liver is also given a good cleanse, that is when jaundice, which affects the liver goes down. So, dry ginger is an amazing remedy for curing jaundice.
Preparation Instructions:
- Dry ginger in combination with Aloe Vera and black salt will work like magic for jaundice.
- Add one spoon of the fresh Aloe Vera pulp.
- A little bit of black salt.
- And then add a teaspoon of dry ginger powder to it and mix well.
Usage Guidelines:
- Consume this every morning on an empty stomach for about 10 days and watch your jaundice levels come down.
- Record the levels and repeat the remedy until your jaundice goes away.
See More: Ginger Side Effects
Dry Ginger Side Effects:
Now everything that has benefits on one side also has side effects on the other right! Here you go, dried ginger also has mild side effects.
- Consuming dried ginger or even fresh ginger for instance in larger quantities may give some people burning sensation in the stomach and heart.
- Dry ginger can give you an upset stomach and diarrhoea if it doesn’t suit you.
- In some women who are sensitive, intake of dry ginger may result in a little extra flow during their monthly menses time.
- Some people who have sensitive skin might experience irritation when their skin comes in contact with dry ginger.
Except for these mild side effects, ginger has never been reported harmful in any other way. It is a very exclusive ingredient put to the best use for culinary and medicinal use.
Whenever you wish to use dry ginger as a remedy ingredient, just try out a little bit of it once or twice to check the sensitivities. If you don’t experience any side effects, then you are good to go! Hope this “uses of dry ginger” article gave you a good insight into the ingredient’s positive side. Share with us how dry ginger helped you recover. Write your comments below.
