Luya is widely cultivated although not on an extensive scale, and is nowhere naturalized. It is a native of tropical Asia and is now pantropic in cultivation.
It is an erect, smooth plant rising from thickened, very aromatic rootstocks. The leafy stems are 0.4 to 1 meter high. The leaves are distichous, lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, 15 to 25 centimeters long, and 2 centimeters wide or less. The scape rising from the rootstocks is erect, 15 to 25 centimeters high, and covered with distant, imbricate bracts. The spike is ovoid to ellipsoid, and about 5 centimeters long. The bracts are ovate, cuspidate, about 2.5 centimeters long and pale green. The calyx is 1 centimeter long or somewhat less. The corolla is greenish-yellow, and its tube is less than 2 centimeters long, while the lip is oblong-obovate and slightly purplish.
The rhizomes of ginger are used as a condiment, being one of the most popular flavoring agents known. Ginger ale and ginger beer, also made from the rhizomes, are refreshing drinks, Tahu, or salabat, a native popular beverage, is also prepared from the rhizomes. The pungency is due to the pungent principle, mainly zingerone and shogaol, it contains, while the aroma is given by the volatile oil. They enter into confectionery, ginger beers, ginger champagnes, and other beverages. In the East and Malaya fresh ginger plays an important part in curcy.
According to Nadkarni ginger contains the following constituents, an aromatic volatile oil (0.25-3 percent) containing camphene, phellandrene, zingiberene, cineol, and borneol; gingeroel, a yellow pungent body an, oleo-resin, gingerin, the active principle; other resins; and starch. Read adds singerone, zingiberene, citral, linabol, geraniol, chavicol, vanillyl alcohol, capryllic acid, methyl heptenon, pelargon-aldehyde and malate.
As an external medicine the Filipinos use the pounded rhizome alone or mixed with oil as a revulsive and antirheumatic. Internally it is used in decoction as a stomachic and stimulant, especially in flatulence and colic. Nadkarni says that ginger juice rubbed on and around the navel is said to cure all kinds of diarrh a. Sanyal and Ghose, Bentley and Trimen, Grieve, and de Grosourdy state that the rhizome is also used as a rubefacient. In Indo-China Menaut reports that a cataplasm is good for furuncles, and, when mixed with oil, is antirheumatic. Dalziel asserts that the leaves, pounded and warmed, are applied as a poultice to bruises. The action of the drug is considered by Sanyal and Ghose, Daruty, Bentley and Trimen, and Nadkarni as stomachic, carminative, stimulant, diaphoretic, sialogogue, and digestive. According to Nadkarni dry ginger is much used in India as a carminative adjunct along with black pepper and long pepper. Ginger is extremely valuable in dyspepsia, flatulence, colic, vomiting, spasms and other painful affections of the stomach and the bowels unattended by fever. It is also very effective for colds, coughs, asthma, dyspepsia, and indigestion. Ginger taken with rock-slat before meals is said clean the throat, increase the appetite, and produce an agreeable sensation. People suffering from biliousness and delirium, relaxed sore throat, hoarseness and loss of voice are sometimes beacfited by chewing a piece of ginger, thus producing a capious flow of saliva. Drying ginger is generally used as a corrective adjunct to purgatives to prevent nausea and griping. The juice expressed from fresh ginger in gradually increasing doses is a strong diuretic in cases of general dropsy.
Waring says that in chronic rheumatics an infusion of ginger (2 drams to 6 ounces of boiling water, and strained), taken warm the last thing before going to bed, the body being covered with blankets so as to produce copious perspiration, is often attended with the best effects. The same treatment has also been found very beneficial in colds or catarrhal attacks, and during the cold stages of intermittent fevers. In headaches ginger a ginger plaster, made by bruising ginger with a little water to the consistence of a poultice, and applied to the forehead, affords in many instances much relief. Toothache and faceache are sometimes relieved by the same poultice applied to the face. Grieve reports that a hot infusion is very useful for stoppage of the menses due to cold. Menaut records that in Indo-China the rhizomes are prescribed for tuberculosis, general fatigue, and affections of the uterus. Hooper says that in writes that in the Antilles powdered rhizome is prescribed as a revulsive for pleurisies.
Source: http://www.en.wikipilipinas.org/index.php?title=Zingiber_officinale
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