Besides tasting great, ginger may be helpful in reducing nausea assiociated with chemotherapy:

"Chinese herbalists also offer ginger to calm an upset stomach and relieve nausea in certain kinds of patients.

"Those are the two main usages,'' Guo said. "Stomach problems and colds and flu.''

Western medicine is taking a page from the book of ancient Chinese medical practice, first written down more than 2,000 years ago and still practiced throughout Asia and around the world.

The National Cancer Institute is conducting a clinical trial to see if capsules filled with the age-old herb help cancer patients suffering one of the banes of modern medicine: nausea and vomiting caused by chemotherapy."