Guide
Ginger and turmeric: what's actually different, and what happens combined
Ginger and turmeric are both rhizomes and both in the ginger family, but they're different plants with different characteristic compounds, studied separately in almost every trial on this site. No published trial has tested taking the two together as a combined dose.
Ginger and turmeric are both rhizomes — underground stems, not true roots — in the same botanical family, which is why they're often sold side by side and combined in recipes. But they're different plants with different characteristic compounds, and no published trial has tested taking the two together as a combined dose.
Related plants, different compounds
Ginger (Zingiber officinale) and turmeric (Curcuma longa) are both members of the Zingiberaceae family, and both are grown, harvested and dried in similar ways. Beyond that botanical relationship, they're studied for different things. A National Institutes of Health reference database identifies gingerols and shogaols as ginger's characteristic pungent compounds. Turmeric's research is almost entirely about curcuminoids — mainly curcumin, the pigment behind its yellow-orange color. These aren't two names or two forms of the same active ingredient; they're separate compounds with separate, mostly separate research bases. See what is ginger? A plain guide and what is turmeric? A plain guide for what each one actually is.
Turmeric's absorption story doesn't apply to ginger
One of the most-cited pieces of turmeric research is about how poorly curcumin absorbs on its own: a 1998 study found that adding just 20 mg of piperine (from black pepper) to a 2-gram curcumin dose raised its measured bioavailability by 2000% in human volunteers. That finding is specific to curcumin's chemistry — it doesn't extend to ginger's gingerols and shogaols, and we found no research testing an equivalent absorption-enhancer pairing for ginger. If a product markets "ginger and turmeric, enhanced with black pepper," the enhancement claim applies to the turmeric component, not the ginger.
No trial has tested the combination itself
Despite how often the two appear together in teas, juice shots and supplement blends, no published trial in the research reviewed for this site tested ginger and turmeric given together as a joint intervention. Each ingredient's trials — motion sickness and chemotherapy nausea for ginger, joint and metabolic markers for turmeric — dosed one ingredient at a time. A "turmeric and ginger" product combines two separately studied ingredients into one recipe or capsule; that's a formulation choice, not evidence of a combined or amplified effect. See ginger benefits: what the research does and doesn't show for what ginger's own trials found.
What a typical recipe or product actually delivers
A homemade turmeric-ginger tea or shot typically uses a small, unmeasured amount of each — a pinch to a teaspoon of powder, or a similar amount of fresh grated root — well below the gram-level doses used in either ingredient's clinical trials. A combined supplement capsule states each ingredient's milligram amount separately on the label; reading those numbers against what each ingredient's own trials used is the more useful comparison than assuming the pairing itself does more than either ingredient alone.
Questions people ask
Is ginger root the same as turmeric?
No. They're related rhizomes in the same plant family, but different species with different characteristic compounds — gingerols and shogaols in ginger, curcuminoids in turmeric.
Can you take ginger and turmeric together?
There's no research showing a specific risk in combining them, and they're commonly sold together, but there's also no trial showing a combined effect beyond what each has been separately studied for. Anyone taking a blood thinner or another regular medication should check both ingredients' individual interaction pages before combining them — see ginger and medications: what to check.
What does turmeric and ginger do for you?
This page can't answer that as a combination, because no trial has tested the pairing. See ginger benefits: what the research does and doesn't show for what ginger's own trials found, dose by dose.
Related reading: ginger benefits: what the research does and doesn't show, what is ginger? A plain guide, and ginger and medications: what to check.
Sources
- Ginger A National Institutes of Health reference database describes ginger's active compounds (gingerols, shogaols), confirms its GRAS food-flavoring status, notes it's commonly used for nausea and motion sickness, and flags mild common side effects plus a bleeding-risk interaction with warfarin.
- Bioavailability of curcumin: problems and promises A 2007 review found curcumin is safe at doses up to 12 grams a day in early human trials but absorbs poorly on its own, which is why supplements pair it with piperine, a phospholipid complex, liposomes or nanoparticles to raise how much reaches the bloodstream.
- Influence of piperine on the pharmacokinetics of curcumin in animals and human volunteers A 1998 study found 2 g of curcumin taken alone barely showed up in human blood at all, but adding just 20 mg of piperine (from black pepper) increased how much curcumin reached the bloodstream by 2000%.
*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.